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WHEAT CULTURE 



HOW TO DOUBLE THE YIELD AND 
INOEEASE THE PEOFITS. 

9' t* 



BY 

D. S. OUETISS, 

Washington, D. C. 




lI^LUSXBiATE^D. 



NEW YORK 

Oranoe Jur>D Company, 
1911 







WHEAT CULTURE. 



HOW TO DODBIE THE YIELD AND INCREASE THE PROFITS 



BT 

Df S. OURTISS, 

WASHINGTON, D. O. 



FOXJIITII KOITIOW. 



ILLUSTRATED. 




NEW YORK : 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

1910 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by the 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



^r^7 



JX-- 



Pbinted in U. S. a. 



'^^ CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I.— Wheat Culture. 



Introduction 



How to Increase Ihe Yield— The Farmer's Capital— Cost of RaisiDg 
Wheat 9 

CHAPTER II.— The Wheat Plant. 

Geographical History— Botanical Origin — Spring and Winter Wheat. ..11 

CHAPTER III.— How to Obtain a Large Yield. 

First— Underdraining. Second — Deep Cultivation. Third — Pulveriz- 
ing of the Soil. Fourth— Alkalies and Soluble Silica. Fifth- 
Clover and Pasture. Sixth— Selection and Preparation of the 
Seed 14 

CHAPTER IV.— Incidental Requisites to a Large Yield. 

Top-Dressing— Insects and Diseases— The Average Yield Doubled— 
Improved Drills and Wheat Hoes— Early Harvesting— Rust, its 
Prevention— Experiments in Indiana— Experiments in England. . .18 

CHAPTER v.— Planting or Sowing Wheat. 

Time to Plant— Benefits of Early Planting— Proper Depth to Plant- 
Germination of Seeds — Quantity of Seed to the Acre — Tools and 
Implements 34 

CHAPTER VI.— Importance op the Wheat Crop. 

Commerce and Population— Various Statistics— Export of Wheat in 
1850, and Since— English Wheat Growing Decreasing 31 

CHAPTER VII.— Flour the Form in which to Sell Wheat. 

Milling Employs Many Persons— Value of Bran and Shorts— Profits of 
Mining— Incidental Benefits— The Straw Not to be Sold 36 

CHAPTER VIII.— Varieties Most GROvra in the United States. 

Varieties Preferred in Different States — Experiments in Missouri Aarri- 
cultural College— Experiments in Massachusetts— Varieties Grown 
in New York — Experiments in Pennsylvania— Varieties in Tennes- 
see and Virginia— Three New Varieties— Some English Pedigree 
Wheats 39 

(III) 



IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX.— Gkeen Manuring and Plowing. 

Plo wing-under Green Crops — Plowing Prairie Land, Present Way — 
Plowing in the Gulf States 50 

CHAPTER X.— Recapitulation of Operations. 

Eight Important Matters — More Knowledge Needed 53 

CHAPTER XL— Examples of Successful Wheat Culture. 

Other Successful Examples— Yield and Product for Sixteen Years- 
Responses to My Circulars — Queries Contained in the Circulars — 
Table Giving Condensed Reports . , --6 

CHAPTER XIL— Extracts from Letters 6i 

CHAPTER XIIL— Diseases and Insects. 

Rust and Smut— The Chinch Bug and Hessian Fly — Midges — Granary 
or Barn Weevil -..64 

CHAPTER XIV.— To Prevent Winter-Killing 68 

CHAPTER XV. — Improved Machinery and Implements 69 

CHAPTER XVL— Analyses of Wheat and Straw _-70 

CHAPTER XVIL— Conclusion 72 



INTKODUCTION TO THIRD EDITIOK. 



The author of this little book is gratified and feels a reason- 
able pride that his modest, though most earnest work has 
proved useful to and been approved by the farming com- 
munities of our country, as appears quite evident from the fact 
that all of the first two editions have been sold, while the work 
is still called for ; hence, this third and improved edition is 
now offered to the public, hoping it will be acceptable. 

That large and growing Order of farmers, " Patrons of Hus- 
bandry," will find this volume a valuable work to be owned 
and read in all of the Granges of the country — a useful guide 
and manual for all who thoughtfully read it. The same sug- 
gestion is applicable in reference to that other growing organ- 
ization, the "Farmers' Alliance." In fact, the information it 
contains will be equally useful to all Farmers' Clubs and Socie- 
ties in every part of the countiy where our wheat is much 
grown. Our country cannot easily produce too much wheat; 
the populations of the world — bread eaters — are constantly 
increasing, while the surface of the earth, the numbers of acres 
of land, cannot be increased, but remains stationary ; the only 
way to enlarge the capacity or field for production is to^increase 
the productiveness of the present limits of our land by im- 
proved systems of cultivation ; making two blades to grow 
where but one grew before, as it were. 

As it appears from various data, the entire amount of wheat 
produced per annum in this country during the last six or eight 
years, ranges from three hundred millions to four hundred and 
forty-five millions. The average yield per acre has been from 
about twelve to fourteen bushels throughout the country- 
higher than that in some States, lower in others, which is less 
than half of what it should and could be with reasonable, skill- 
ful management ; for it is a fact that many wise, careful grow- 
ers, in different States, obtain as high as from thirty to fifty 
bushels per acre, on large fields of only fairly good lands, from 
year to year. [Growers will find it instructive and interesting 
to carefully read page 61 of this work.] 

(J) 



VI IKTRODUCTIOi^ TO THIRD EDITIOl^". 

Statistics show the fact that within the last half dozen years 
the average yield per acre has been raised two to three bushels 
in many of the States, which is of more value than the entire 
profits of most growers — it being believed that many farmers do 
not realize in clear profit the price of two bushels per acre. This 
increased yield of two to three bushels per acre is wholly the 
result of care and improved methods with both soil and seed, 
which better way, if observed and practised, will insure similar 
desirable results wherever adopted ; and all this improved cul- 
tivation is what is plainly and earnestly urged and explained in 
this work. 

From various statistics we learn that the annual export of 
wheat from the United States for several years has ranged from 
about one hundred and thirty million bushels to one hundred 
and forty-five million bushels ; and the demand must continue 
to increase for many years, and the United States will be the 
main supply. In the Annual Report of the Agricultural De- 
partment it may be seen v^here most of the wheat is purchased 
and consumed. The following table, in those reports recently, 
shows the following quantity of wheat and of flour reduced to 
wheat purchased by Great Britain during the last fifteen years, 
in bushels of sixty pounds : 

Countries. Total Quantity. Yearly Average. 

United States 929,656,838 61 ,977.122 

Russia 246,991,629 16,466,109 

India - -. 143,528,146 9,568,543 

Australasia,. 70,309,557 4,687,304 

Otber countries 428,362,405 28,557,494 

Total 1,818,848,575 121,256,572 

By these figures it appears that the United States supplies 
Great Britain with as much wheat and flour as all other coun- 
tries combined ; and it is hoped and believed that the knowledge 
of the above important facts will be sufficient to stimulate our 
farmers to make all honorable efforts to create the most fertile 
wheat soils, and secure the largest yields and richly paying 
profits in their grain growing operations, which it is possible 
for human intelligence and industry to achieve, in a country 
and climate so favorable and extensive as ours. 

D. S. CURTISS. 

Washington, D, C, August, 1888, 



WHEAT CULTURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHEAT CULTURE. 

HOW TO INCREASE THE YIELD. 

It is a well-known fact that the average yield of wheat 
in this country is absurdly small, being only about four- 
teen bushels per acre — not half what it should and might 
be in so new a country — and that the profits of growing 
it are correspondingly light. All this we have long no- 
ticed with regret, and that feeling has stimulated us to 
prepare this little work, hoping that the facts presented 
in it may, to some extent, aid the growers to produce 
better results, to secure larger yields, and thereby larger 
profits. 

Whatever a man believes he can do, if it be proper 
and he desires to do it, he is very likely to do. It is to 
the interest of wheat growers to greatly increase their 
yield per acre, to even double the prevailing average yield, 
and thereby double their profits. We are well satisfied 
that this can be done, and it is our desire and aim to 
convince them that they can easily do it ; then, with 
that faith, they will be sure to accomplish the result. 

We believe that fuller knowledge and more thought 
among farmers generally will surely lead to higher 
achievements in their 'important work; that increased 
knowledge of the subject will secure increased yield, and 



8 WHEAT CULTURE. 

also, as a consequence, afford ejilarged profits for their 
operations. 

THE farmer's capital. 

Each acre of land, with its necessary appurtenances, 
constitutes the farmer's fixed capital. The more he can 
produce from each acre, without exhausting his soil, the 
greater will be his interest on the investment. Labor, 
tools, seed, teams, and fertilizers, are the temporary capi- 
tal, and this capital is continually consumed and worn 
out, requiring as continually to be replenished. 

Exhausting or robbing the soil from year to year by 
improvident management, is equivalent to a man's ex- 
pending or reducing his capital — the principal — instead 
of only the interest or income. All business men know 
this to be a ruinous performance, which will, sooner or 
later, result in bankruptcy. 

If a farmer has ten acres of land it is so much invested 
capital, and if by judicious culture he obtains from it 
three hundred bushels of wheat each year, instead of 
only one hundred and fifty bushels, it is so much in- 
creased income for the capital invested, which is the 
value of the ten acres — say one hundred dollars per acre, 
making a capital of one thousand dollars. 

cost of raising wheat. 

From various data it is safe to assume that, on the ma- 
jority of farms throughout the country, the cost of rais- 
ing and marketing the wheat crop is about ten dollars 
per acre, including taxes and interest on land and the 
wear and tear of tools. Reliable statistics for the past 
few years show that the average yield per acre has been 
about fourteen bushels, and the average price of wheat 
per bushel about one dollar, giving an income of about 
fourteen dollars per acre annually, and a profit of four 
dollars per acre above cost of production, allowing noth- 



WHEAT CULTUBE. 9 

ing for the straw and refuse, whicli are required by, or 
should be returned to, the soil to leave it in fair condi- 
tion. This gives little over one-third profit on the cost 
of the crop. 

But, as a business transaction, what per cent of inter- 
est does it afford on the fixed capital invested ? It gives 
four per cent on the value of the land at one hun- 
dred dollars per acre; certainly rather less than active 
business men are generally contented with. It will do 
for large capitalists, millionaires, who have bank and 
stock investments, and who give no labor or toil to earn 
and secure their incomes, but is too small return for 
working men with only limited investments of a few 
hundreds or thousands of permanent capital. 

Now, suppose that by doubling the expense of produc- 
tion in labor and manure to twenty dollars per acre, and 
thereby the croj) or yield is doubled to twenty-eight 
bushels per acre of wheat, and, as in the other case, the 
wheat is worth one dollar per bushel, the profits will be 
eight dollars per acre instead of four, and the interest on 
the capital will be eight dollars, or eight per cent, just 
double, without doubling the capital ; a showing that 
will tell pleasantly on the prosperity of the operator. 
These calculations can be carried out to any extent and 
on any farm operation by any school-boy or the farmer's 
children. Suppose, for instance, a farm of one hundred 
acres, on which it is desired to raise one thousand bush- 
els of wheat every year ; at twenty bushels the acre, fifty 
acres would be required for the desired crop ; but at forty 
bushels, which many obtain, only twenty-five acres would 
be required for one thousand bushels. 

WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SHOULD DO. 

The results — improved agriculture and increased yield 
of wheat — which this little work is endeavoring to bring 
about, should be a leading object and an important part 



10 WHEAT CULTURE. 

of the business of the Department of Agriculture. That 
Department slioiilcl, long before this, have adopted the 
practice of sending thousands of circulars to intelligent 
practical farmers in all wheat-growing portions of the 
nation, submitting interrogatories and requests for an- 
swers, in order to obtain statements and reports of the 
largest 3^ield, and the average yield, per acre of wheat in 
each locality, together with the details of the modes and 
conditions under which large yields and poor yields were 
produced, also the kind of seed and soil employed in 
the operation, and then publish the replies. 

Such reports and details would afford highly practical 
and useful lessons, and aid others in obtaining higher re- 
sults by such examples ; but probably we shall not have 
such practical service from the Department of Agricul- 
ture very soon ; at least, not until the agricultural papers 
everywhere speak out, and the farming community rise 
up in their might and demand the appointment of an 
earnest, honest, capable agriculturist to fill the important 
position of Commissioner, one who is not a speculator, 
seeking eelat, and who will have more regard for the best 
interests of agriculture than for his own purse and noto- 
riety. Such an official would make the Department a 
benefit to the farmers. 

Of the vast and vital importance of agriculture Mr. 
William Saunders some time ago wrote: ^^At no time 
in our nation's history, more than at the present, has there 
been greater necessity for the encouragement by Govern- 
ment of this ^Art of Arts' — Agriculture — which is the 
foundation of wealth and greatness ; for to that source 
we must look for the means of paying the national debt. 
It is the fountain whence must flow that material aid 
without which it is impossible for civilized peoples to 
exist." 

Nothing is truer than the above remark. The farmer 
feeds all, and he pays most of the Government expenses ; 



THE WHEAT PLAKT, 11 

he is taxed, through the tariff laws, on everything he 
buys, to give gain and wealth to commercial and manu- 
facturing classes. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE WHEAT PLANT. 

GEOGEAPHICAL HISTOKT. 

Writers on the subject differ widely as to the original 
home of our great bread cereal. Wheat ( Triticum vul- 
gar e). Some state it to be India; others Persia, and we 
find it frequently mentioned in the Holy Bible. The 
earliest recorded history of man shows it to have been 
among his breadstuff s, and it has flourished to a greater 
or less extent wherever civilized people have made their 
habitation. Of course all localities where this grain may 
possibly be grown are not equally favorable to it. To 
understand the best conditions for successfully growing 
wheat is of more importance at this time than to know pre- 
cisely its original home, though knowing that fact is of 
some moment as indicating, to some degree, the most 
suitable conditions for greatest success in its cultivation. 

It is stated, and generally understood, that wheat first 
came to the United States from Mexico, and that it was 
introduced into that country by Cortez, or during his 
administration. One of the beneficent provisions of Di- 
vine Providence in regard to wheat is that it will flourish, 
to some extent, in a wider range of country, climate and 
soil, than any other bread grain now in use, thereby ren- 
dering it the most valuable of all for the human race ; 
but possibly Oats (Avena) will flourish in a warmer cli- 



1^ WHEAT CULTURE. 

mate, and Barley {Hordetwi) in a colder, than our 
wheats. 

BOTANICAL ORIGIN". 

Botanical authors differ about as widely as do others as 
to the origin or derivation of the wheat plant, Triticum. 
Some of them maintain that wheat sprang from an in- 
ferior grain or grass, and from that has been improved 
by cultivation, up to the superior grain which we now 
find it. Others contend that it was originally, and from 
the beginning, a pure, absolute wheat, with all the char- 
acteristics that it now presents, with increased excellence 
attained by cultivation, in some varieties, as is the case 
with horses, where the thorough-bred specimens show 
superior points to the common farm horse. 

The former class contend that wheat is derived from 
u^gilops ovata, a handsome grass, one to two feet high, 
resembling wheat more than other grasses do, but more 
like barley than wheat, and found in the countries bor- 
dering on the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. It is 
held that this grass simply, by good culture, has resulted 
in what is now our wheat. But in writing this little 
work it is not our aim or province to settle these disputed 
questions, in which the doctors disagree. 

Another beautiful characteristic of this chief of the 
cereals is its wonderful susceptibility to modifying in- 
fluences, resulting, under intelligent management of 
growers, in the production of new varieties, adapted to 
great differences of circumstances, and rewarding the 
cultivators with grains suited to their peculiar situations 
and necessities. Ten or a dozen species of Triticum are 
mentioned by some writers ; while others refer all our 
cultivated wheats to a single species, with hundreds of 
varieties. 

Great changes in wheat are effected by two processes, 
that of hybridizing, and what is called the pedigree sys- 



THE WHEAT PLANT. 13 

tern ; both modes have given valuable sorts of wheat. 
The pedigree system is best and most convenient ; it con- 
sists in selecting, from year to year, the best specimens, 
saving them for seed and planting them year after year. 

SPRIKG AND WINTER WHEAT. 

The great mass of the wheat grown in this country is 
the Triticum vulgare, which is divided into two sub- 
species or races — T. Miernum, Winter Wheat ; andT. cbs- 
tivum, Spring Wheat. These are arranged in many 
groups, as the bald and bearded, the hard and soft, the 
white and red ; and still further subdivided as varieties 
which are known by texture and color of the kernel, the 
color and quality of the chaff or straw, and by many 
other characteristics which need not be enumerated here. 

In regions where forests abound, and where heavy 
loam or clay lands exist, winter varieties of wheat are 
most suitable. For light, friable soils, like the prairies, 
where there is but little snow, and the soil is liable to be 
blown away, spring varieties succeed best, because, be- 
ing planted in spring, they are not subject to be laid 
bare and destroyed by winter wind and frost. On moist 
lands, such as river-bottoms and alluvial formations, the 
rapid-growing, quick-ripening varieties (whether winter 
or spring) succeed best. Maturing in shorter time, they 
are more likely to escape rust and other calamities inci- 
dent to such localities. 

Yet, almost every natural land can, by proper man- 
agement, be made a fair wheat soil. Under-draining, 
thorough pulverization, and a fair supply of vegetable 
manures, with ashes or lime, will render sand, gravel, or 
clay land a suitable soil for successful wheat-growing. 
But, first of all, it must be well drained and made fine 
and rich. 



14 WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER III. 

HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD. 

Besides the minor details, there are six essential re- 
quisites for the production of uniformly large yields, per 
acre, of sound wheat. 

FIRST — UlSTDER-DRAINING. 

There must absolutely be a well-drained, deep, porous, 
warm subsoil, to the depth of at least two feet, with no 
stagnant water, in order that air and moisture may freely 
circulate through all parts of the earth to that depth, 
which will also allow the plant roots to run down and 
spread out easily for their necessary nourishment. Where 
the land is naturally of a loose texture, as gravel and 
sand, to a goodly depth, or with a gravelly sub-soil, the 
artificial drainage is less needed. 

SECOND — DEEP CULTIVATION. 

Deep cultivation by the sub-soil plow, is absolutely 
necessary, to the depth of at least twelve to fifteen inches, 
according to the nature of the land — whether porous or 
tenacious and hard — so as to enable the soil to retain 
moisture in a dry time, and to allow an excess to pass 
off readily in a wet season, as well as to albw the roots 
to have easy, wide range. Deep cultivation is, therefore, 
equally beneficial against the effects of drouth as against 
the drowning of the plants ; being loose and mellow to 
a goodly depth, moisture from below can freely rise to 
the surface when it is dry and hot, and heavy rains can 
readily sink down when they form surplus water on the 
surface. This operation does not require the raw sub-soil 
to be brought to the top. 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD. 15 

Most of the advantages of sub-soil plowing and deep 
cultivation will be lost or not realized, and even injury be 
done, if the land be not also well under-drained to a con- 
siderable depth — two feet at least — because the deep 
plowing makes a basin of the land so plowed, where sur- 
plus water will settle and remain stagnant, unless there 
are sufficient drains at a lower depth than the plowing, 
to freely carry off all excess of water. But the drainage 
being ample, the land cannot well be broken too deeply 
for best results in wheat-gr.owing. Let the sub-soil plow- 
ing be done so as not to bring much of the raw, stiff 
under-earth to the top at first, and the next year it will 
be first-rate soil for grain. 

THIRD — PULVERIZATION OF THE SOIL. 

Perfect pulverization, by fine plowing, harrowing, and 
rolling, is highly important, and will be productive of 
beneficial results, in giving large yields, and will preserve 
the fertility and strength of the land, by preparing the soil 
and putting it in that comminuted form in which the 
rootlets can absorb and appropriate a greater portion of 
the nutriment than when it is in a lumpy condition. In 
fact, the constituents of the soil cannot be brought into 
that state of solution in which they must be before plants 
can appropriate them, until the soil is made very fine. No 
part of the earth, no matter how rich it may be, is avail- 
able for plant use, until it is very finely pulverized. 
Hence, much crushing, stirring, and culture is necessary, 

FOURTH— ALKALI AND SOLUBLE SILICA. 

There must be a liberal quantity of alkali and soluble 
silica in the soil, in order to enable it to produce a heavy 
crop of healthy wheat. Alkaline matters, such as potash 
and lime, must be in the soil, to operate with the air and 
moisture in dissolving all the required elements or ingre- 



16 WHEAT CULTURE. 

dients, in order that tliey may be taken up in plant 
growth ; otherwise faihire is certain. Liebig and other 
chemists and experimenters have proved that but small 
quantities of potash and silica are necessary, but that 
these small quantities are absolutely essential, as are 
moisture and air — those powerful solvents which reduce 
the constituents of the soil to a liquid state, so that plants 
can use them. 

FIFTH — CLOYER AND PLASTER. 

"With the above preparation thoroughly made — ^that is, 
under-draining and sub-soiling — plaster, on clover plowed 
under in rank growth, and with the use of good seed 
wheat — a yield of thirty to forty bushels the acre of sound 
wheat will be the result, three years out of four, as 
surely as fifteen to twenty is from the ordinary farm 
operations. If the drainage be thoroughly done, and the 
sub- soiling well done, twelve to fifteen inches deep, the 
sub-soiling will not be required oftener than every four 
or five years, and the ordinary plowing need not be more 
than six or seven inches deep in the intermediate years, 
and for plowing under clover or other green crops, or 
any manure, the plowing need not be more than five or 
six inches deep, with mellow sub-soil. 

In order not to bring raw sub-soil to the surface, it is 
best to cut the main furrow eight to ten inches deep with 
a large plow and stout team. Then follow in that furrow 
with a single horse and small, narrow plow, which will 
break the sub-earth four to six inches deeper and not 
quite so wide as the first furrow, and the next fuiTow 
will fall into and cover the small one, leaving the old 
surface soil still near the top. Most farmers know of 
and have used the small, sharp sub-soil plows made on 
purpose for that work, and to great advantage. 

It is found to be a good plan to apply the alkalies — 
^shes, lime, potash, and salt, or whatever is used — to th^ 



HOW TO OBT^VIi^ A LAEGE YIELD. 17 

ground just before sowing or planting the wheat, and 
then harrow them into the surface at the rate of ten to 
fifteen bushels of lime, or six to eight bushels of ashes or 
salt to the acre. 

SIXTH — SELECTION AN^D PEEPARATIOK OF THE SEED. 

Proper selection and preparation of seed are all-essential 
in getting highest results in wheat growing. Seed should 
be perfectly ripe, gathered, thrashed and binned without 
the least wetting or moulding, and without being cracked 
or heated in the lightning thrashers ; it should be per- 
fectly screened and cleaned in the fanning mill. Farm- 
ers would, in the long run, be the gainers if they would 
each year gather with the grain cradle and thrash by 
hand with flail on a clean barn floor, sufficient wheat for 
seed, selecting the best growth in their fields, and letting 
it stand until perfectly ripe, taking that which seems to 
be earliest in ripening. When ready to plant, soak the 
seed six to ten hours in brine, and roll in plaster to dry 
it for the drill. 

In regard to seeding with clover and grass, there are 
several modes and varieties, and differences of opinion 
among growers. Our own experience for several years 
in different States, on various soils, as well as considera- 
ble observation and reading, lead us to believe that Red- 
top is better than Timothy to seed with Clover, princi- 
pally because it comes to maturity nearer the same time 
with the clover; and we think early spring is the best 
time to sow the clover, say on the last snows of the sea- 
son, or during the first spring showers, or just before 
them, so that they will cover the seed into the soil and 
cause early germination ; but we would sow the grass 
seed (Red- top, Timothy, or Orchard-grass) at the time of 
sowing the wheat^ so that it may get a start in the fall. 



18 WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER IV. 
INCIDENTAL REQUIREMENTS TO A LARGE YIELD. 

PREPARIN'G THE SEED-BED. 

Incidental to the six essential points named, is the 
planting of the seed and the immediate preparation of 
the surface to receive it. The ground should be more 
thoroughly harrowed than some farmers do it, to level 
and fine it as completely as possible, but all farmers well 
know that the harrow will not crush the lumps, though 
it cuts some of them to pieces while it pushes others 
aside. The roller crushes and finely powders nearly all 
of the surface soil, making a fine seed-bed for the drill 
to run through and plant the seed, which it leaves in 
shallow gutters, lightly covered with small ridges each 
side. The ridges prevent the seed and young plant from 
being blown bare in high winds, and will also catch the 
snow and hold it to cover and shelter the wheat, 

TOP-DRESSIKG — INSECTS Ai^D DISEASES. 

When the grain is well up in the fall, it will more than 
pay the cost to spread six or eight bushels of plaster to 
the acre on the crop, and after the frosts appear and the 
plants begin to be dormant, a dressing of four to six bush- 
els of common salt, per acre, will be worth more than the 
outlay, not only by making the crop more luxuriant, but 
also by aifording much security against injury by rust 
and insects. In the spring again, as soon as the ground 
is dry enough to allow of walking over it comfortably, a 
dressing of four or five bushels to the acre of fine lime 
will afford still further security against all insects or dis- 
eases. Sowing lime and plaster as a top-dressing, fall 
and spring, is needed for each crop, but the ten or fifteen 



EEQUIREMENTS TO A LARGE YIELD. 19 

bushels applied in preparing the soil will be sufficient if 
given once in three years. 

THE AVERAGE YIELD DOUBLED. 

We have no hesitation in saying that the system above 
marked out, if faithfully carried out for five years or 
longer, will as surely give all the growers who practice it 
more than double the average yield per acre of wheat, as 
the common practice gives that average. Every one who 
reads this can calculate the cost, and he will find that, 
although it will cost him less than one-half more per 
acre, it will as surely give him full double returns, and 
generally even more than double. Every farmer knows 
that it will cost very little, or no more, to cut and gather 
an acre which yields thirty bushels, than one that yields 
only fifteen. It costs no more to plant it, so that all the 
extra cost is in sub-soil plowing and top-dressing with 
the lime and plaster, and preparing the seed. 

IMPROVED DRILLS AN^D WHEAT HOES. 

But if the grower would still further increase his yield, 
and without proportionally increasing the expense, he can 
effect it by first using the improved drill points. These 
spread the seed-grain further apart than the ordinary 
drill, require less seed, distribute more evenly in the soil, 
and give the same quantity of plants more room to grow 
and receive air and light freely. 

Also, let it be planted m drills wide apart (fourteen to 
sixteen inches), so that it may be hoed between the drills 
in fall and spring, with either hand-hoes or horse-hoes, 
which can be done by either running a corn-cultivator 
through it, or, better still, by the use of the new wheat 
hoe shown in figure 1. 

Hoeing wheat is very much in favor by those who have 
practised it, and is said to largely increase the yield, and 



^0 



WHEAT CULTURE, 



to generally give a better quality of grain. It is much 
practised in England and other parts of Europe, and has 
been adopted by some growers in this country, who uni- 
formly acknowledge valuable results therefrom. Among 
other advantages claimed for it are these : it more then 
doubles the yield for a given quantity of land and seed 
by allowmg much better tillering out ; it keeps the land 
clean, any cockle or other weeds can readily be removed 




THE WHEAT HOE AT WORK. 



that may get into the rows of wlieat ; better opportunity 
IS afforded to dislodge insects and to apply ashes, lime, 
plaster, sulphur, or other remedies, for diseases and in- 
sects ; the grain is more pleasantly cut and gathered, 
giving twice the profit on every acre. 

The engravings, figures 2 and 3, show the difference 
between wheat not hoed and that hoed. 



EARLY HARVESTING. 



One important operation to assure large profits from 
the wheat crop, is early harvesting, as soon as it is passing 



REQUIREMEKTS TO A LARGE YIELD, 



21 



out of the milk into tlio doiigli state. This course is too 
little known or obseryecl by the great majority of farmers, 
and, when better understood, will be more widely adopted. 
Five very imi^ortant advantages, besides several lesser ones, 
are derived from harvesting the wheat crop thus early : 

First — It is largely a preventive of injury by rust, as 
■jRst ceases to affect the gram as soon as it is cut, while 




Fig. 2.— WHEAT IN CLOSE DRILLS, UNCULTIVATED. 

the substance in the straw perfects the gram if cut in 
the milk state. Second — It gives more and heavier gram. 
Third — It gives more and better flour to the bushel, as all 
the time the grain stands, after the dough state, it makes 
bran at the expense of starch and flour. Fourth — It 
causes less waste by shellmg and scattering while har^ 




vesting 



Fig. 3. — WHEAT WIDE APART AND HOED — TILLERED OUT. 

and handling. Fifth — The harvestmg can be 
sooner begun and out of the way, for other work, and is 
more pleasantly done, as the straw is tougher and softer 
to handle than when perfectly ripe. For flour and milling 
purposes, wheat cut early is the best, but the small 
quantity needed for seed should stand until perfectly ripe. 

RUST — ITS PREVENTION. 

A writer in the '^^ Tecumseh (Mich.) Herald" com- 
municates the following on the su})ject of early harvest of 
wheat : — " Rust m wheat is caused, among other things, 
by exhaustion in the soil of requisite mineral matters, 



22 WHEAT CULTURE. 

such as soluble silica, potash, and some others, which are 
required to make stiff, bright, well glazed straw ; and 
this condition is aggravated, or rather operated upon, by 
climatic changes, to produce fungi or rust. When the 
straw is too tender and soft, lacking sufficient flinty or 
glazed covering, which is the case when it grows too suc- 
culent with excess of nitrogenous and lack of mineral 
matters, it is liable to be ruptured if suddenly struck by 
the sun while damp. When tliis state of things occurs, 
an immediate sprinkling of plaster or of lime has been 
sometimes known to arrest the disease and prevent serious 
diaster to the grain ; but when it occurs late enough to 
find the grain advanced to the milk or dough state, im- 
mediately cutting the grain will save it from injury by 
the rust, and secure a crop of sound wheat with some- 
what injured straw only." 

EXPERIMEITTS 11^ II^DIAI^A. 

He also quotes an early writer, in the agricultural 
reports from Indiana, who gives the following facts in his 
own experience : 

^^ He sowed three equal fields of similar quality of soil, 
and same kind of seed, to wheat, in September. On the 
twenty-fifth of June following, rust appeared in all three 
fields ; the wheat was just in the dough state. On that 
day he cut one of the fields ; the second day he cut an- 
other field, leaving them lying to cure in the swath, as 
the grain was quite green, in the dough state. Four days 
'ater he cut the third field, which, by this time, was 
badly rusted. Upon thrashing and weighing the grain, 
separately, of each field, he found that No. 1 (the first 
cut) gave twelve bushels the acre of grain, weighing 
fifty-six pounds the measured bushel ; No. 2 gave eight 
bushels the acre, weighing forty-six pounds ; and No. 3 
gave less <"han the seed sown, of poor grain." 

** In li^58, ten years later, rust made its appearance 



REQUIKEMEKTS TO A LAEGE YIELD. 23 

again on liis place, and he made another test of the 
utility of early harvest, with three patches of wheat. The 
third week in June, when rust struck all of his wheat, he 
at once cut one field, while very green, just passing out 
of the milk ; two days after he cut the second field ;. 
three days later still he cut the third, by which time the 
rust was very bad. The early cut was left to cure in the 
swath. He thrashed and weighed each parcel separately, 
as in the former experiment. The first cut gave twenty- 
five bushels the acre, weighing sixty-one pounds the 
bushel ; the second lot only half as much, and weighing 
fifty-six pounds the bushel ; and the third lot much 
poorer than the second." 

Here are instructive lessons in regard to early harvest 
and rust. 

EXPERIMEi^^TS li^ E]S"GLAN^D. 

" An English farmer reports cutting three lots of 
M^heat at different stages of maturity — in the milk, in the 
dough, and fully ripe. He thrashed separately, and had 
one hundred pounds of each carefully ground and the 
results weighed. The one hundred pounds of wheat, cut 
in the milk, made seventy-five pounds of flour, eleven 
pounds shorts, twelve pounds bran ; that cut in the 
dough made eighty pounds flour, five pounds shorts, 
thirteen pounds bran ; that cut fully ripe made seventy- 
two pounds flour, eleven pounds shorts, fifteen pounds 
bran ; two pounds lost by milling in each case. This 
shows the dough state made most flour, and the ripest 
made the least flour and most bran." Bran is made at 
the expense of flour, by standing late. 

Mr. Reid, of Indiana, reports to the Agricultural De- 
partment that he cut half of a fifty-acre field of Mediter- 
ranean wheat in the dough state ; the balance ten days 
later. The first gave most bushel^, and weighed sixty- 
five pounds ; the last, less bushels, weighing only sixty 
pounds ; the first also made more and better flour. 



24 WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER V. 

PLANTING OR SOWING WHEAT. 

TIME TO PLAINT. 

In tiiis matter, as in most others connected with plant 
life, it is safe to take nature as a guide to a considerable ex- 
tent. In most cases her ways and habits are the true ones ; 
and, in the operation of planting our grains, that guide is 
eminently correct, making due allowances for the changed 
conditions of artificial sowing. Hence early planting is 
the correct system, as nature usually plants the seed very 
soon after it is ripe and ready to fall from the parent 
plant. This would indicate that wheat should be planted 
as soon after becoming ripe as the soil can be made ready 
to receive the seed, after harvest and thrashing. There 
will be little danger of rust or insects, however early the 
grain may be sown, if the seed is well soaked in brine 
and dried in plaster or lime, if the land is well drained 
and deeply cultivated, and if, furthermore, the crop 
be liberally dressed with salt, lime, or plaster, in late 
autumn or early spring. There will, also, be little or no 
danger of too rank growth, or blasting, or shrinking, if 
the soil be well pulverized and deeply cultivated, with 
a fair supply of potash or lime to secure a sufficiency of 
soluble silica to make sound, healthy straw and chaff. 
With all the proper, natural conditions, early planting is 
surely the best — from August first to September fifteenth, 
according to locality. 

On this point Mr. C. E. Thorne, of the Ohio Univer- 
sity Farm, makes the following report of his experi- 
ments : 

*^ A piece of bottom land, about ten rods wide by thirty 
long, was laid off in five equal strips, each two rods wide, 



PLAKTIiTG OB SOWIis^G WHEAT. 25 

and all sown with Clawson wheat — with seed at the same 
rate per acre — on the ninth, sixteenth, twenty- third, and 
thirtieth of September, and the seventh of October, 
1878. 

^^The results were as follows : Strip sown September 
ninth yielded at the rate of thirty- three and one-fifth 
bushels per acre ; strip sown September sixteenth yielded 
at the rate of thirty and three-tenths bushels per acre ; 
strip sown September twenty-third yielded at the rate of 
twenty-six and two-fifths bushels per acre ; strip sown 
September thirtieth yielded at the rate of thirty-two and 
seven-tenths bushels per acre, and strip sown October 
seventh yielded at the rate of twenty-six and one-fifth 
bushels per acre." 

Here it will be seen that the seed sown in the last half 
of September yielded best. 

BEi^EFITS OF EARLY PLA:N"TIJ^G. 

Some of the benefits of early planting are that it will 
sectire a stronger growth of plants during autumn for en- 
during the winter, giving them more power to resist any 
calamity that may attack the crop, besides giving more 
time for tillering-out and making a good fruitful stool ; 
and should any grower fear that his crop will make too 
stout a growth, he can feed it down or mow it off, either 
being preferable to having a slim, late crop. We find 
the majority of testimony among intelligent, observing 
experimenters, to be largely m favor of early planting, 
lu early, at least, as the middle of September, while our 
own opinion, from many years' experience, is that even 
fifteen to twenty days earlier than that is preferable — say 
from the tenth of August to the first of September. 

And when the great mass of farmers come to know 
and prize the many benefits of early harvest, they will 
also see the utility of uniformly planting earlier than is 
now the common custom; this will bring forward ear- 



26 WHEAT CULTURE. 

lier harvests, leaving time and room to make more per- 
fect preparations for early planting. But with early 
harvesting of tlie main crop, a portion of the largest and 
finest of the grain, sufficient for their needed seed, should 
be left standing to ripen perfectly, to be gathered by hand 
with cradle or sickle, and then also thrashed by hand 
with the flail. 

Many more arguments or reasons could be given for 
early planting or early harvesting, but space requires us 
to be brief. 

PROPER DEPTH TO PLANT. 

In the matter of depth to plant, as in regard to time 
of sowing, nature's methods may be considered, making 
due allowance for attendant circumstances. Nature 
drops the seed on the surface, then covers it very slightly 
with only dust and light leaf-mould or straw and chaff 
from the parent plant and surrounding litter to shelter 
it from the sun-rays ; she plants in the shade, where de- 
caying matters cover and nourish until the plant is fairly 
rooted, but she never plants deeply nor covers heavily. 

Several circumstances must dictate the proper depth 
for wheat in different localities, such as the kind of soil, 
the degree of temperature and moisture, and the season 
at which the planting is done ; these and other condi- 
tions must, more or less, control the matter, so that no 
invariable rule can be laid down for all situations and 
periods, but much must be left to the judgment and skill 
of the operator. In light, porous soils, that are rather 
dry and warm, more depth of covering will be needed 
than in heavy, moist lands. About one inch in the for- 
mer and three-fourths of an inch m the latter will not be 
far from right, as a general practice. A depth of not 
less than three-fourths of an inch nor more than an inch 
and a half are probably tlie extremes for wheat, to secure 
the best results. Sandy and gravelly lands will admit of 



PLANTING OR SOWING WHEAT. 27 

deeper planting tlian heavier, clayey lands ; but the light, 
friable soils of the Western prairies probably require the 
deepest covering of any in which wheat is grown, as that 
soil is more liable to be blown about by the winds, and 
there is generally less snow in winter to protect the crops 
from extremes. Then, in autumn, when the soil for 
some inches below the surface is Tvarmer than in the 
spring, it will do to plant deeper than in the latter season. 
A writer in the ''New England Farmer" recommends 
a depth of not less than half an inch nor more than one 
inch. The ''Michigan Farmer" favors a quarter to half 
an inch as giving the best results in most cases. 

GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 

Air, moisture, and warmth are all necessary to cause 
seeds to germinate and send up plants; they will 
"come up" sooner in warm than in cold soils ; in those 
that are moist than in very dry ; in loose, porous, than 
in stiff, hard soils. Experiments have shown that wheat 
planted at different depths came up as follows : At half 
an inch, in ten days ; one inch, in twelve days ; at two 
inches, in eighteen days ; but m some cases of favorable 
warm conditions, wheat at those depths has been known 
to come up in six to four days, not usually, however, so 
soon. A temperature of soil and air from fifty to sixty 
degrees is favorable for wheat, though it will sprout and 
grow at several degrees both below and above that. 

The "American Cultivator " gives the following useful 
tables : 

"Frequent complaints are made that seeds do not ger- 
minate, and dealers m them are found fault with when, 
very generally, the fault lies in the improper manner in 
which people plant them. Many take no heed of the 
condition of the soil or of the depth at which the seed 
should be planted. The temperature and moisture also 



28 



WHEAT CULTURE. 



liaye a controlling influence. The temperature of germi- 
nation, of the following seeds, is : 



Wheat . 
Barley . 
Pea ... , 
Com.. . 
Bean . . . 
Squa'sh 



Lowest. 


Highest. 


Most rapid 


Degrees F. 


Degrees F. 


Degrees K 


41 


104 


84 


41 


104 


83 


44 


102 


84 


48 


115 


93 


49 


111 


79 


54 


115 


93 



^^ Air-dried seeds will imbibe water of absorption com- 
pletely in from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, in the 
following percentage : 



Mustard 8 

Millet 25 

Corn 44 

Wheat 45 



Buckwheat 47 

Barley 49 

Turnips 51 

Rye 58 



Oats eOlPea 107 

Hemp 60 Clover 118 

Kidney beans . 96|Beets 121 

Horse beans.. 104' White clover.. 127 



Mr. S. N". Betts, in the "Michigan Homestead," gives 
the following interesting results of his experiments : 

"The figures at the top of the table indicate the depth 
in inches at which the different samples were planted, 
and the figures at the left the time at which they came 
up, respectively. The other figures are the number of 
kernels that germinated in each forty : 

I 



February 2 6 a.m. 

February 3 9 A. M. 

February 4 11a.m. 

February 5 9 a.m. 

February 6 10 a.m. 



February 7. 
February 8. 
February 9. 
February 11, 



11 A. m. 
9 A. m. 
9 A, m. 
9 a. m. 



V2 


V4 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


13 


7 














33 


34 


9 


11 










33 


35 


36 


24 


23 












39 


33 


36 


2 
26 












34 




30 


8 


4 








35 




32 


16 
19 
20 


10 
17 
19 



"It will be seen that the seed planted one inch in 
depth gave the best returns. That planted respectively 
at three-quarters of an inch and two inches in depth 
yielded the same number of kernels. Seed planted three 
inches deep produced good, and that planted more than 
four inches very poor results. " 



PLANTING OR SOWING WHEAT. 29 

QUAKTITY OF SEED TO THE ACRE. 

As in many other farm matters, there is diversity of 
opinion as to the quantity of seed it is best to sow, but 
judgment and circumstances must determine the point in 
different situations. Different preparation of both seed 
and soil will render more or less seed necessary ; climate 
and season have much to do with it ; kind of soil and 
variety of wheat, also, have a bearing upon the question. 
Wheats which tiller largely, like Clawson, Fultz, Gold 
Medal, etc., need less seed to the acre. Rich, fertile 
soil requires less than poor land. A long season and 
warm climate require less, as affording better conditions 
for spreading and growing ; fine, deep pulverization of 
the soil, which gives heavier growth to each plant, needs 
less seed, and well-cleaned, sound grain requires less 
seed than otherwise. Then more seed is required when 
sown in the spring than in the fall on the same land. 
Many circumstances enter into the determination of the 
question, so that careful discretion should be exercised 
by each grower for his OAvn special case. The manner 
of planting, whether by drill or broadcast, and the style 
of drill used, make more or less seed necessary. If seed 
IS well screened and brined, with all light, foul seed 
skimmed off, of course less will be necessary. From three 
to six pecks, per acre, is about right, as a general rule. 

Broadcast sowing is hardly safe with less than six 
pecks to tlie acre of good seed, to secure full seeding to 
all parts of the ground, as some spots will get too much, 
and some will not be covered. With drill jilanting the 
seed IS more evenly distributed, and more completely 
covered, with none too much in any one place ; hence 
less is needed. Some styles of drills distribute the seed 
better than others, some of them making four pecks 
necessary, while with the others tliree pecks will be suffi- 
cient. If every kernel were properly planted, and all 



30 WHEAT CULTURE. 

perfectly distributed and germinated, even much less 
than the above quantity would be needed to fully seed 
the ground. Yet, if the planting be not done in the 
very best manner, to secure the growth of all the seed, 
we would recommend too much rather than too little — 
say six to eight pecks to the acre. 

TOOLS AI^D IMPLEMENTS. 

Every prudent farmer will buy the best and most sub- 
stantial implements and tools, and those of the best pat- 
tern ; in the long run they are the most economical. 
The greater despatch of work and saving in labor will 
more than pay the extra price, m a single season, of a 
superior implement over a poor one. Often the loss of 
time and damage to crop, from hindrance by breakage 
of a flimsy tool, more than offsets the higher cost of a first 
class implement. Furthermore, the same good farmer 
will always take care of and shelter his tools and imple- 
ments from the weather, when not in use, and not leave 
them out in the fields to be storm beaten. 



IMPORTANCE OP THE WHEAT CROP. ol 



CHAPTER VL 

IMPORTANCE OF THE WHEAT CROP. 

COMMERCE AI!^D POPULATIOl!^. 

As an additional stimulus to our farmers to make 
efforts for greater yield in the production of wheat, we 
will call their attention to its great importance in the 
commercial and financial world. 

Wheat is now the great sensation in commercial circles 
everywhere, and is the liveliest of all commodities in 
general trade. Especially to the United States is the 
matter one of great and growing importance, as many 
foreign countries are becoming more and more dependent 
upon us for their supply of breadstuffs ; and it is alike 
our duty and interest to supply them as fully as possible, 
and as cheaply as can be, consistent with fair returns for 
our labor. 

Our room and area are almost unlimited and our facili- 
ties unbounded. Our soils and localities are numerous and 
diversified, while our climate embraces a wide and varied 
range, and generally of the most congenial character — 
reaching from ocean to ocean, and from the tropics to the 
frozen zone. It seems emphatically our mission to feed 
the Old World in its decline. It has been our grand 
privilege to give the Old W^orld, even in our youth, an 
example of the best form of human government yet 
known to them. And now, before we are half grown, it 
is our privilege, and within our power, to furnish them 
with the very means to sustain their natural lives, and 
avert from them threatened starvation. 



32 WHEAT CULTURE. 

REPOETS BY LETTERS. 

Many results reported in numerous letters received by 
the author, for last year's harvest, show that the maxi- 
mum yield, in many sections of many States, ranged 
from thirty, forty, fifty, up to sixty-one bushels per acre, 
under thorough, judicious culture ; and many reports, 
gathered from other authentic sources, for several years 
past, in different States, show that as high as fifty to 
sixty bushels per acre have frequently been obtained. Is 
it unreasonable, then, to claim that the great majority of 
farmers can more than double the average yield of four- 
teen bushels, and make the average even as high as 
thirty bushals the acre ? For instance, take the mean 
between these maximum rates of forty to sixty bushels, 
which is fifty bushels, and we believe it not a very hard 
matter for the majority of wheat growers to obtain that 
figure of fifty bushels the acre. 

When farmers reflect that their productions have 
really become the controlling commodities in the com- 
mercial world, they will understand that they cannot 
become too intelligent in their business, nor too well 
informed in regard to the markets and trade, where they 
must sell and buy. Daniel Webster is reported to have 
once said, in a speech, '' that the time was not far distant 
when American wheat would regulate the money and 
exchanges of Europe and America," a prediction already 
well-nigh fulfilment ; and a similar remark was recently 
made by an English statesman, that " the breadstuff s of 
America would soon control the exchanges and commerce 
of the world," which is being realized by the farmers of 
America already. 

VARIOUS STATISTICS. 

Different reports and estimates show that the total 
wheat product of the United States, in 1878, was very 
nearly four hundred and twenty million bushels, on 



IMPOETANCE OF THE WHEAT CROP. 33 

about fcliirty-one million acres of land, being nearly an 
average of fourteen bushels per acre. This quantity 
gave our i^eople, for home consumption, two hundred 
million bushels, allowing five bushels per capita for the 
entire population, estimated in round numbers at forty 
millions, while the people of Europe have not more than 
three to four bushels a head for all the population. For 
seed, it likewise allowed us sixty million bushels for 
thirty-two million acres the succeeding season, which is 
the average, probably, sown that year, and then left about 
one hundred and forty million bushels surplus for ex- 
portation, which is the quantity shown by various statis- 
tics to have been exported by the time the crop of 1879 
was ready to go forward ; and for the crop of the latter 
year we have even larger figures. The acreage harvested 
in 1879 was about thirty-two million acres, and the en- 
tire product was not far from four hundred and forty 
million bushels, showing a trifle less than an average of 
fourteen bushels per acre for the whole area sown, which 
is an absurdly small yield for a new country and lands, 
such as ours, and which ought to be, and easily can be, 
doubled, if the farmers will all adopt the best knoAvn 
methods, whereby they can likewise double their profits. 
The Duke of Beaufort has made somewhat detailed 
estimates of the cost of the growing and transportation 
of wheat in America, and is very emphatic in his con- 
clusions, saying : *^ As to the expense, I have no doubt 
but wheat can be raised in the United States and be 
landed at Liverpool, from the average of distance of 
shipping points on the coast of the United States, at a 
cost of four shillings per bushel, or thirty-two shillings 
per quarter," and then asks, '' Can you compete with this 
price in England ? I say, certainly not. " The Duke 
sums up his letter as follows : *' The result of my con- 
sideration of the subject is this — that climate, steam 
transport by land and sea, with the labor question on 



34 WHEAT CULTURE. 

both sides of the ocean, have made it out of the power 
of our agriculturists to compete with the growers of 
wheat in America, and that our farmers must turn their 
attention to better and cheaper modes of raising beef 
and mutton ; distance, with the difficulty and expense of 
transporting live and dead meats, gives us an advantage 
over them that we will be wise to improve, rather than 
waste time and capital m trying the impossible task of 
competing with them m growing wheat, or we shall be 
driven out of the meat market also by the Americans." 

From the ''English Agricultural Gazette" we copy 
the following sensible remarks : " It is more than prob- 
able that the acreage of wheat sown here, for 1880, will 
be considerably less than for many years ; farmers are 
disheartened as to wheat culture here ; they have lost 
confidence m their climate, soil, and market ; the ad- 
visability of growing less wheat has been advocated here 
for some years by many of our agricultural leaders, nota- 
bly by Mr. Lawes, and it is not difficult to restrict the 
acreage of wheat in the. Kingdom." 

EXPORTS OF WHEAT IN" 1850, AKD SIJ^CE. 

In 1850, the United States exported wheat and flour (re- 
ducing the flour to its equivalent in bushels) eight million 
bushels ; 1860, about eighteen million bushels ; 1877, 
over fifty-seven million one hundred and fifty-two 
thousand bushels ; 1878, over one hundred and thirty-four 
million three hundred thousand bushels ; and in 1879, 
known and estimated above one hundred and sixty one 
million four hundred thousand bushels ; and the greater 
portion of this vast export, every year, went to Great 
Britain. In 1878, that country imported into her own 
borders some fifty-seven million five hundred thousand 
cwts. of grain, flour, and meal, of which forty-eight per 
cent, nearly half, were received from the United States. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE WHEAT CROP. 35 

EN'GLISH WHEAT-GROWIiq'G DECREASING. 

Another fact is auspicious to the prospects of the 
American farmer, which is — that the number of persons 
engaged in grain-growing in Great Britain is on the de- 
crease. By reference to reports in English journals, it 
will be seen that the number of persons there engaged in 
wheat-growing in 1861 was one million eight hundred 
and thirty-three thousand two hundred and ninety-five ; 
but in 1871 the number was decreased to one milhon six 
hundred and thirty-four thousand one hundred and 
ninety-two, a reduction of nearly twelve per cent in ten 
years ; and the decrease, during the past decade, is re- 
ported as being still larger, though the number engaged 
m grazing has remained as usual. 

It is also reported that the number of acres sown to 
grain, especially to wheat, is steadily becoming less, for 
the past ten years. 

Great Britain will, undoubtedly, for a long time, be the 
largest purchaser of our farm products, especially of 
wheat, while some other countries of Europe and of 
South America will often need portions of our grains, but 
they will want it mostly as flour, which is really the true 
form m which we should sell all of our surplus wheat. 

From numerous reports and other sources, in foreign 
journals, we learn that the average yield, per acre, m 
France and Germany, until the last few years, was 
twenty-eight to thirty-two bushels ; and in England and 
Wales, from thirty to thirty-four bushels, until the late 
disastrous crops ; but that was the average yield, for 
many generations, even on their old lands, which had 
been cropped for ages. 



36 WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER YII. 

FLOUR THE FORM IN WHICH TO SELL WHEAT. 

MILLING EMPLOYS 3IAi^Y PERSON'S. 

For several important reasons, all of our surplus wheat 
should be sold or exported in the shape of flour. 

First — It will afford useful emj^loyment to a large 
number of mechanics and others laborers here at home, 
such as builders and operators of mills, coopers, and 
others, in making barrels or other packages — in packing 
and putting up the packages, handling and hauling, be- 
sides other incidental labor, not required in selling and 
shipping whole wheat. The business and profits of feed- 
ing, clothing, housing, and otherwise maintaining all of 
these yarious operatives, inside and outside of the flour- 
ing mills, are likewise very considerable. 

THE VALUE OF BRAN AND SHORTS. 

Second — It will retain here at home the bran, shorts, 
and other refuse, always produced in milling, whence it 
can and always should go back to the farms and land 
where wheat is produced, as fertilizers to the soil, 
through feeding stock, to aid in preventing exhaustion 
or ^^ running down" of the soil. It is well known, and 
IS shown by various analyses, that the bran and straw 
contain nearly all of the mineral or inorganic matter 
which the wheat crop has derived from the soil. Conse- 
quently those portions of the wheat plant do most towards 
impoverishing the land and rendering it less capable of 
producing a heavy crop of sound grain ; hence as much 
as possible of the bran and straw should ^o back to the 
land, 



FLOUR THE FORM IN WHICH TO SELL WHEAT. 37 



THE PROFITS OF MILLI:N'G. 

Third — The large profits of milling and making and 
packing flour, by which many large fortunes are acquired, 
will be retained and accumulated at home, affording at- 
tractive investments for a large amount of capital. Of the 
one hundred and forty million bushels surplus of 1878, 
perhaps as much as eighty million to one hundred million 
bushels were exported in the shape of whole wheat ; 
that would make about twenty-five million barrels of 
flour, and at a casual guess it is safe to say that, includ- 
ing bran and shorts, the profits on milling that quantity 
of wheat would be one dollar per barrel, which would 
make the snug sum of twenty-five million dollars saved 
at home by grinding all of it into flour before exporting ; 
no matter whether the figures are precisely correct or 
not, they illustrate the proposition and pomt the argu- 
ment all the same. 

i:N^CIDEiTTAL BENEFITS. 

Fourth — Considerable saving in freights and insur- 
ance would be made, and less trouble in handling, as a 
mass of wheat, when reduced to the shape of well-packed 
flour, occupies less room, is liable to less risk, and can 
be more pleasantly handled than its equivalent as whole 
wheat. For instance, twenty-five million barrels of flour 
will not cost as much freight and msurance for transport 
from Chicago to New York, or from Baltimore to Liver- 
pool, as would the quantity of wheat, one hundred mil- 
lion bushels, required to make it ; consequently, the 
difference would be so much saving to be added to the 
profits at the point of shipping or milling. For these 
and other reasons, as much as possible of wheat should 
be made into flour before exporting, or even before being 
sent from the county where grown. 



38 WHEAT CtJLTURE. 

Fifth — Where large flouring and coopering operations 
are carried on, many laborers of different classes are em- 
ployed. They, in tarn, ai 1 the prosperity of the gar- 
deners, orchardists, and small farmers, by consuming 
and making market for their A^ogetables, milk, fruits, 
and poultry products, to a considerable extent, upon 
which, generally, better profits are realized than on their 
wheat. Hence the agricultural classes should do what 
they can toward the building of mills in their neighbor- 
hood!?, which will flour all of their surplus wheat before 
it leaves the vicinity where it is raised ; and then the 
farmers should seek to get back to their own premises as 
much of the bran and shorts as they well can, to feed 
the stock and soil. 

THE STRAW NOT TO BE SOLD. 

It is certainly bad policy to sell the straw off of the 
farm, as it largely contains the soluble silica of the soil, 
which is so essential to make a* vigorous, healthy crop of 
wheat. There are of late so many ways for using up straw, 
in making coarse paj^er and other fabrics, in towns and 
cities, whi(5h give it a merchantable price that offers 
tempting inducements for farmers to haul it to town for 
sale, in many districts, to the injury of their lands, by 
robbing them of their silica, without an adequate return. 
This in the long run will prove ruinous, unless an equiv- 
alent of useful manure of some kind is carried back and 
supplied to the soil. Nothing is really an equal substitute 
for straw except good stable manure, swam|? muck, and 
leaf mould. 



VARIETIES MOST GROWK IK THE UKITED ,5TATES. 39 

CHAPTER VIII. 
VARIETIES MOST GROWN IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The following is a list of varieties that ha/o succeeded 
in most of the States, and proved to be superior in some 
desirable quality — either for earliness, harc^icess, prolific 
yield, freedom from disease, or some other good charac- 
teristic, or for adaptability to certain localities : 

Early May, Bald Mediterranean, Canada Flint, Velvet, 
Genesee Flint, Hutchinson, Kentucky, Indiana, New 
York Flint, Bearded Mediterranean, Turkish Flint, 
Harmon's White (New York Flint), Blue-stem, Boone, 
Gander, Hoover, Lambert, Michigan, Malta, Orange, 
Perkey, Golden-chaff, Quaker, Shot-berry or Starbuck, 
Dayton, Carolina, Golden-straw, Virginia, Reed-straw, 
Boughton or Tappahannock, Tennessee, Bald Genesee, 
and Zimmerman. The Early May, know^n also as Ala- 
bama, Early Ripe, June, and Watkins, has been cut as 
early as May twenty-sixth, in Ohio, yielded well, and 
weighed sixty-five pounds to the bushel. Mr. Klippart 
reports that the Orange has been known to yield seventy 
bushels to the acre, and eighty kernels in a single head ; 
and that the Early May, Genesee Flint, and. Harmon's 
White, frequently weighed sixty-four to sixty-six pounds 
the bushel. 

Among later varieties, which are gaining popularity as 
prolific yielders, are the Keystone, Amber, Red Mediter- 
ranean, and Yellow Missouri (winter), and Champlain, 
Defiance, Russian White, and Toiice (spring) ; the heads 
of some of them are said to be eight inches long, with 
seventy to eighty kernels in them. 

VARIETIES PREFERRED 11^ DIFFEREN"T STATES. 

In Colorado, spring w^heats mostly prevail, the White 
Australian proving very prolific. In Connecticut, Red 



40 WHEAT CULTUEE. 

Winter, and Gold Medal, with the' Sherman as a spring 
wheat, have given good results. Delaware produces the 
Virginia White and Fultz, and most other varieties of 
winter wheats that succeed in Maryland. Illinois and 
Iowa grow most of the winter and spring sorts that suc- 
ceed in Wisconsin and other States generally, including 
Fultz and Club. In Maryland, the Boughton, Blue- 
stem, Olawson, Fultz, Grold Dust, Gold Medal, Jennings, 
Lancaster, Mediterranean, and New York Flints, are 
popular. In Michigan both spring and winter varieties 
are grown extensively ; of the latter, Clawson, Deihl, 
Early May, Gold Medal, Genesee Flint, Lancaster, 
Mediterranean, and Victor seem to be most popular ; of 
the former, Arnautka, Canada Club, Champlain, De- 
fiance, Fife, Milwaukee, and Touzelle are preferred. 
Minnesota grows largely of Arnautka, Fife, Odessa, and 
Club spring wheats and some winter sorts. Kansas 
grows spring and some winter wheats. 

EXPEEIMElsTTS AT THE MISSOURI AGRICULTUEAL COLLEGE. 

In Missouri all the popular sorts succeed, particularly 
Clawson and Sandford. Prof. G. C. Swallow, Dean of the 
Agricultural College, writing in regard to some interest- 
ing experiments made with wheat on the farm of that 
Institution, in 1877-78, reports that of sixty-one va- 
rieties of winter wheat experimented with, twelve were 
winter-killed and one was destroyed by rust. Of the 
remaining forty-eight kinds, all planted September 
twenty-ninth, 1877, forty-three were harvested in June, 
and five in July ; eight kinds grew to a hight of six feet ; 
six kinds weighed the standard of sixty pounds, or over ; 
five reached thirty bushels, or over, per acre ; two, less 
than one hundred pounds of straw per bushel, namely : 
Clawson, giving on an acre two thousand six hundred 
and forty-six pounds of straw to twenty-eight bushels of 
grain ; and the Sandford, giving on an acre one thousand 



VAKIETIES MOST GROWK IK THE UKlTED STATES. 41 

two linndred and fifty-two jDOiiiids of straw and eighteen 
and three-qnarters bushels of grain. 

The Missouri ^Agricultural College reports Eed May 
winter wheat, the earliest ripening variety, raised on 
their experimental farm ; sowed September twenty-ninth, 
it was ripe on June eighth ; is a smooth, or beardless 
wheat ; gives about twenty-eight bushels the acre, weigh- 
ing fifty-nine pounds. 

The heaviest wheat which they raised was the Mediter- 
ranean, sixty-one pounds, and twenty-two bushels the 
acre — red grain and bearded heads. The largest yield of 
any was from Rogers' White, thirty-eight and three- 
quarters bushels per acre, very plump, weighing fifty-nine 
pounds. 

EXPERIMENTS li^" MASSACHUSETTS. 

In Massachusetts, as reported, some years ago, by J. 
H. Klippart, from ^* Philosophic Transactions," it is 
stated that " 0. Miller, of Cambridge, on June second, 
23lanted a few grains of red wheat ; one plant tillered out 
so much by August eighth that he was enabled to divide 
it into eighteen parts, all of which he planted separately 
in pots of earth. Then, in September and October, so 
many of these had multiplied their stalks that the num- 
ber of plants was sixty-seven, which were divided and 
again set out separately. With the first growth of spring 
the tillering still went on, so that at the beginning of 
April a further division was made, and the number of 
plants was five hundred. These all proved to be ex- 
tremely vigorous, more so than wheat plants under 
ordinary circumstances, so that the whole number of 
heads of wheat gathered from the original plant, by this 
process of division, was twenty-one thousand one hundred 
and nine. In a few instances there were one hundred 
heads on a single plant, very fine and long, some being 
seven inches in length and containing seventy grains 



42 WHEAT CULTURE. 

each. The grain, when all separated from the straw, 
weighed forty-seven pounds and seven ounces, measuring 
three pecks and six quarts, estimated number of grains 
being five hundred and seventy-six thousand eight hun- 
dred and forty, and all from one grain in one harvest." 

Mr. Killibrew remarks: — ^^Of course, such an enor- 
mous increase is not practicable on a large scale. Yet the 
experiment is useful as showing the vast power of in- 
crease possessed by this most valuable grain, under skill- 
ful, intelligent management, and is an encouragement 
to our farmers to put forth their best efforts." 

VAEIETIES GROWi^- 11^" NEW YORK. 

Probably, in New York, a greater number of varieties 
of wheat are grown than in any other one State, possibly 
equalled by Ohio and Pennsylvania, where pretty much 
the same varieties are the general favorites. So far as we 
have been able to learn, Boughton, Clawson, Deihl, Gen- 
esee Flint, Fultz, Wicks, Gold Dust, and Harmon's 
White, are most popular, with Gold Medal, Jennings' 
White, Mediterranean, and Early May, with some others, 
are nearly as much so, all giving satisfactory results in 
v.>rious localities. New York has long been distinguished 
for its fine wheat and excellent flour ; the old, long time 
ago popular '' Genesee White Flint," known the world 
over for the superior flour made from it, was of Spanish 
origin, and has a wide progeny through the whole coun- 
try — the Boughton, Tappahannock, Blue-stem, Harmon's 
White, and many others, having originated from it. 

Hon. L. L. Polk, Commissioner of Agriculture for 
North Carolina, reports that the Fultz does well in that 
State ; others report the Clawson as popular. 

VARIETIES AI^D EXPERIMENTS IK OHIO. 

For Ohio, Prof. C. E. Thorne reports, in the ''Farm 
and Friend," that "the wheat harvest commenced on the 



VARIETIES MOST GROWK IN^ THE UKITEB STATES. 43 

twenty-fifth of June witli tlie Velvet-chaff variety, a 
hard, amber wheat, and is vahied for its freedom from 
disease, stiffness of straw, earliness, and good flour. 
Fultz ripened about the same time, possessing good 
quahties, with rather softer grain. Golden Straw was 
cut on the twenty-seventh. It is a white, plump wheat, 
originated in Tennessee, has short, stiff straw, but has 
not proved a very heavy cropper. June thirtieth Claw- 
son was cut, and has sustained its high reputation for 
freedom from disease, weight of crop, and good straw. 
Next Gold Medal was cut, a soft, white grain, short, 
stiff, clean straw, and heavy cropper, but shells easily. 
About the same time the Silver-chaff was ripened, a 
Canada wheat, is a tall grower, with stiff straw, not very 
liable to lodge on any soil, appears free from disease, 
does not shell easily, is white as the Clawson and flinty 
as the Mediterranean. Though not accurately measured, 
the yield was about as follows : Velvet-chaff, thirty- 
six bushels per acre ; Fultz, twenty-six ; Golden Straw, 
twenty-seven ; Clawson, thirty-four ; Gold Medal, thirty- 
six, and Silver-chaff, thirty-five." 

In the palmy days of the Genesee Flint, the splendid 
varieties of Clawson, Fultz, Gold Dust, Gold Medal, and 
Jennings' White, seem not to have been known, at least, 
are not mentioned by Mr. Klippart in his work, though 
they are now, perhaps, the five most popular varieties of 
winter wheat grown in our country. He names Canada 
Flint, Genesee Flint, Hutchinson, English, Blue-stem, 
Lambert, Orange, and Early May, as among the most 
popular white wheats in 1860. 

EXPERIMENTS IN PEKKSYLYANIA. 

Eeports from the '* Experimental Farm" of the Agri- 
cultural College of Pennsylvania, of which Prof. James 
Calder is President, show the Clawson, Gold Medal, Gold 
Dust, Fultz, and Lancaster, to be the most desirable 



44 WHEAT CULTURE. 

varieties, among many, groAvn on tlieir place, and per- 
haps throughout the State. The proportion of grain to 
straw is an important consideration in determining the 
value of any variety of wheat. We here give some im- 
portant reports on the subject from the Pennsylvania 
Agricultural College and ^^Experimental Farm." Their 
experiments in 1878 included above twenty varieties, but 
I here give the results of the four most important varie- 
ties, viz. : Clawson, Fultz, Grold Dust and Gold Medal. 
They were all sown on Spetember twenty-eighth, 1877, 
and all harvested June twenty-eighth, 1878, with the 
same care and accuracy. 

Fultz and Gold Medal, light amber and beardless, 
yielded, of grain and straw, per acre, as follows : 
Fultz — grain, thirty-two and eight one-hundreths bush- 
els ; straw, two thousand five hundred and ninety- 
two pounds. Gold Medal — grain, thirty-one and fifty- 
four one-hundredths bushels ; straw, two thousand five 
hundred and fifty-two pounds, a remarkable nearness 
of yield, in both grain and straw, by these sorts. 

Clawson and Gold Dust, beardless, whiter than above 
kinds, sown and harvested the same date as above, gave the 
following results : Clawson — grain, thirty-two bushels ; 
straw, three thousand and seventy-two pounds. Gold 
Dust — grain, thirty-one and twenty-four one-hundreths 
bushels; straw, three thousand and forty-two pounds; very 
nearly the same yields of straw and grain, by each, re- 
spectively and proportionally ; but it will be noticed that 
the Fultz and Gold Medal gave slightly larger proportion 
of grain to straw than the Clawson and Gold Dust ; all 
of the other kinds (of the twenty tried) gave considera- 
bly more straw, compared to quantity of grain, than 
these four thus particularly mentioned. 

The ground on which all of these were sown was a 
clayey, sandy loam wheat stubble, plowed soon after har- 
vest, then liberally manured. The wheat was put in 



VARIETIES MOST GROW:^^ I:N' THE UI^ITED STATES. 45 

with the drill after the land was thoroughly rolled and 
all lumps crushed and powdered. 

Genesee Flint, Boughton, Mediterranean, Silver- 
chaff, Blue-stem, Jennings' White, Victor, and Wicks, 
are some of the varieties which give large proportion of 
grain to straw, while Sandford, Eureka, "Bill Dallas," 
Walker, and Deihl, give greater proportion of straw to 
grain than those named above. 

Farmers desiring a wheat which will produce the best 
proportion of grain to straw, will find a lesson and a 
guide in this statement. 

VARIETIES IK TEI^IfESSEE AND VIRGII^IA. 

Hon. J. B. Killebrew, in his instructive work on 
Wheats in Tennessee, mentions, as succeedirg generally in 
that State, the Amber, Boughton, Clawson, Deihl, Early 
May, Fultz, Genesee Flint, Golden-straw, Lancaster, 
Mediterranean, Quaker, Walker, and some others ; and 
he remarks, specially, that "before the introduction of 
Boughton, Clawson, Fultz, and Mediterranean, with 
some others, fifteen to twenty bushels the acre was con- 
sidered an extra yield, but since then twenty-five to 
thirty-five bushels the acre are not uncommon on prop- 
erly tilled lands." 

Hon. Thomas Pollard, Commissioner of Agriculture 
for Virginia, in his excellent Eeport, 1879, shows that 
the varieties most grown and popular in that State are, 
about in the order named, the following : Fultz, Lan- 
caster, Scott, Amber, Blue-stem, Clawson, Canada, 
Golden-straw, Mediterranean, and Genesee Flint ; and 
others, popular in localities, as the Jennings' White, 
Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri Yellow, New York Flint, 
Quaker, Rutfin, Weeks, and Zimmerman. 

Prof. J. R. Page, of the Virginia University Experi- 
mental Farm, in 1878, reports experiments Avith "Eureka" 
«wid "Fultz " wheats, planted with drill, one-half acre each, 



46 WHEAT CULTURE. 

OIL November second, and harvested on June eleventh 
and fifteenth. Fultz, first cut, gave nine bushels the 
half acre, and eight hundred and thirty pounds of straw, 
grain weighing sixty pounds the bushel. Eureka gave 
eight and one-half bushels the half acre of grain, and 
one thousand one hundred and ninety-six pounds of 
straw ; the grain weighed sixty-two pounds the bushel ; 
the land was a gray, micaceous, sandy loam. He further 
exj^erimented on six lots of land, of an acre each — poor, 
micaceous, siliceous soil, with many white flint rocks 
scattered over it. The land was all plowed and fallowed 
from the tenth to the eighteenth of September, 1877, 
harrowed, aud wheat sowed — the Fultz by drill — October 
fifteenth ; m the following March, was harrowed and sowed 
with clover seed. The wheat was harvested June tenth 
and eleventh. Lot one was manured with two hundred 
pounds ground bone, one hundred pounds nitrate of 
soda, one hundred pounds muriate of potash, in all, 
value nine dollars and seventy-five cents. Yield of grain 
was eighteen and one-half bushels, weighing sixty-one 
and one-half pounds per bushel ; straw, one thousand 
three hundred and twenty-five pounds, and chaff, 
two hundred and seventy-nine pounds. Same lot, suc- 
ceeding year, without fertilizers, produced two and one- 
half bushels grain, weighing sixty and one-lKilf pounds 
per bushel, four hundred and twenty pounds straw, and 
thirty- three pounds chaff. Quantity of seed sown was 
five pecks per acre. The other five lots, treated m simi- 
lar manner the same two years, gave similar results, less 
bushels of grain and of lighter weight. 

*' A seventh acre-lot was manured with two hundred 
pounds dissolved bone, one hundred pounds nitrate of 
soda, one hundred pounds potash, all mixed ; value, 
nine dollars and seventy-five cents ; sowed by drill with 
five pecks Fultz wheat, October fifteenth. Yield was 
eighteen bushels grain, weighing sixty-one pounds per 



VAEIETIES MOST GROWN 11^ THE Ui^ITED STATES. 47 




Fig. 4.— CHAMPLAIN WHEAT. 



WHEAT CULTUEE. 

bushel, one thousand 
three hundred and forty 
i:)Ounds of straw, and 
two hundred and ninety- 
seven pounds chaff." 

In Wisconsin, as in 
most of the prairie 
States, spring varieties 
are suited to large por- 
tions of the State. In 
spring wheats, Arnaut- 
ka, Club, Odessa, Fife, 
and Eussian White, are 
most popular ; in the 
winter wheats, ClaAvson, 
Genesee Flint, Gold 
Dust, Fultz, Jennings, 
Lancaster, Mediterrane- 
an, and Eed, are the 
popular varieties. 



Fig. 5.— DEFIANCE 



THREE KEW VARIETIES. 

Eecently two new va- 
rieties of Spring Wheat 
have been produced in 
Vermont. They are re- 
ported as giving large 
yields, and being valua- 
ble, and are represented 
in the engravings figs. 
4 and 5 on the previous 
and this page. The 
'^Champlam" is a beard- 
ed, red-kernel wheat ; 
the other, ' ' Defiance, " 
is a white, bald wheat, 



Fig. 6.— RUSSIAN 
SPRING WHEAT. 



TARIETIES MOST GROWK II^" THE UNITED STATES. 49 

and is generally preferred on account of its lighter color, 
and being beardless. 

We also give an engraving (fig. 6) of a new Spring 
Wheat, called the ^' AVhite Russian " (somewhat like the 
Defiance), which, it is claimed, is a great cropper, and 
very valuable. 

SOME EJ^GLISH PEDIGREE WHEATS. 

Mr. T. E. Pawlett, an English farmer, reports in 
detail some interesting experiments. He says : '^ Oc- 
tober twenty-fifth, 1861, I drilled in the following seven 
sorts of wheat, in drills eight inches apart, covering 
about one and one-half inch, six pecks the acre, on clover- 
sod plo wed-under, after being fed a short time by sheep, 
and obtained results as follows : 

1— Hallett's Pedigree, red 36V2 bushels per acre. 

2— Giant, red SS'A " " 

3— Tibbald's Wonder, red 43V4 " " 

4— Corner's, white 42% " " 

5 -Glory of the West, white 371/2 " " 

6— Grace's, white 44 " " 

7— Russian, white 4IV2 " " 

Octol)er twenty-sixth, same year, he made another ex- 
periment, on another field, with six varieties, on gravel 
land, after clover plowed-under, and same quantity of 
seed drilled-m, same distance and depth as in the above 
experiment, with the following results : 

1— Tibbald's Wonder, red 48 V2 bushels per acre. 

2— Giant, red 38V4 '' 

3— Browick, red 44'/4 " " 

4— Russian, white 33'/2 " " 

5 — Corner's, white 45'/2 " " 

6 — Talavera, white 36'/2 " " 

He remarks that, from these experiments, it appears 
that Corner's and Grace's are the best yielders of the 
white wheat, and that the Giant and Tibbald's are the 
best yielders of the dark wheats, on his land, while Tib- 
bald's gave the heaviest yield of all ; Corner's is the best 
quality of gram. 
3 



50 WHEAT CULTUBE. 

CHAPTER IX. 
GREEN MANURING AND PLOWING. 

PLOWIIs"G-Ii^ GREEI^ CROPS. 

Il is, probably, safe to say that no other mode of fer- 
tihzing land — either to preserve or restore productive- 
ness — is so effective and cheap as plo wing-in green 
crops, such as clover, lucern, peas, buckwheat, and 
some others, treated with liberal top-dressings of lime or 
ashes just before plowing, and with plaster while grow- 
ing. This practice not only supplies the soil with veg- 
etable matter, but it tends to make it friable and porous, 
so that the air can permeate freely, and allows the roots 
of tlie plants to run and spread freely for their needed 
nourishment. 

It lightens up, leavens the land, as it were, doing 
much to prevent the evil effects of drouth by creating 
and preserving a degree of moisture in the soil during a 
dry time. Lucern, or Alfalfa, as it is called in some 
sections, is even better than clover in the estimation of 
those farmers who have used it, as it runs its roots deeper 
than clover. The roots are also larger, and tend to sub- 
soil culture, and when cut off eight to ten inches deep in 
the soil by the plow, they leave it moist and porous to 
that depth while decaying, and make a favorite bed for 
the roots of the wheat plant. 

PLOWIN^G PRAIRIE LAKD — THE OLD WAY. 

At the time of our first becoming a settler in the 
Western States, the ordinary mode adopted by the pio- 
neers for ''breaking prairies" was with a heavy team — 
four to six yoke of oxen — and a large ''break-up plow" 
that would turn a shallow furrow, twenty-four to thirty- 



GKEEK MAKUKII^G AKD PLOWING. 51 

six inches wide, two to three inches deep, and this broad, 
thin ribbon-like strip of prairie sod would be laid over 
smooth and flat as a strip of carpet. The aim was to cut 
and turn it as thin and wide and flat as possible and have 
it hang together, and be fairly inverted, each succeeding 
furrow lying nicely down in the preceding one, so that 
few spaces would be left for grass to grow up to the sur- 
face, with a depth that should be just under the main 
roots of the grass, generally from two to three inches. 

The plowing was generally done in spring or early 
summer, in order that the vegetable matter might be- 
come decayed for sustaining the wheat, corn, or other 
crop that might be planted upon it ; or in the fall, if the 
settler then first entered upon the land, and thus be 
ready for an early spring crop, as soon as the frost was 
out of the way. It was always a pleasant, satisfactory 
occupation to hold or follow the huge breaking-up plow, 
drawn steadily along by the stalwart team, as there was 
always such a sense or feeling of conquest, of subjugation. 

plowi:n^g peairie land — the present way. 

But now these things are somewhat changed, and re- 
cently a better and more elaborate mode has been 
adopted, as thus described in a communication to the 
American Agriculturist, as follows : 

'^At Schuyler, Nebraska, West of Omaha, J. T. 
Clarkson showed some fields of prairie prepared for 
wheat which were broken up by him m the spring ; he 
first turned over the virgin sod, about three inches deep, 
in the usual way; then a second plow followed in the 
furrow and took up about an inch more of the soil and 
threw it over the inverted sod ; this, being carefully har- 
rowed, filled up the spaces between the sods and fur- 
nished a fine soil seed-bed for the grain." 

"At Marshall, Minnesota, E. S. Youmans treated a 
part of his land thus : He broke it up on May tenth } 



52 WHEAT CULTURE. 

July tenth to September fifteenth. The disk harrow or 
sod-cutter was used and the sod all cut finely ; it was 
then ^back set,' that is, the plow was run under some- 
what deeper, and the cut sods were buried under the 
loose, turned-up soil. On this seed-bed spring wheat was 
sown from the sixth to the twentieth of April. Thus 
treated the prairie land will yield five to seven bushels, 
per acre, more than with the usual single plowing. W. 
L. Nevins had six hundred acres of spring wheat, near 
Tracy, Minnesota, five hundred and forty of which were 
treated like the above, and it seemed to give a yield of 
about eight bushels, per acre, more than that with the 
single plowing. He sowed the Fife wheat, from the 
sixth to the sixteenth of April, fifty quarts of seed to 
the acre." 

Double plowing, cutting the sod finely and covering it 
with the rich, friable prairie, making a loam-bed of the 
whole, was certainly a paying operation. 

PLOWII^'G li^ THE GULF STATES. 

With an improved cultivation, deeper, finer plowing 
and pulverization, much more of the lands of Florida 
and Georgia can be made to produce good yields of 
wheat. But before the deep plowing is done it is neces- 
sary to have the land w^ell underdrained to the depth of 
at least two feet, in order to secure the advantages of the 
deep plowing ; and the plowing should be done with 
good, heavy two-horse or three-mule teams, then thor- 
oughly harrowed and rolled, to compeletely pulverize the 
land. This treatment will insure a gfood crop of wheat 
on all the ordinarily fair Innds of tlie Gulf States, but 
the single-mule plowing, which, we are informed, gener- 
ally prevails there, will never secure uniformly good 
crops of wheat, there or elsewhere. Land must be well 
drained and deeply tilled to produce wheat. 



EECAPITULATION OF OPERATIONS. 63 

CHAPTER X. 
RECAPITULATION OF OPERATIONS. 

We will here sum up, in brief, the process or requisites 
essential to produce increased yield of wheat and contin- 
ued good crops, as follows : 

First — Perfect Drain^age, by both under-drains 
and surface ditches, as shall be found necessary to pre- 
vent stagnant water in the sub-soil or any standing water 
on the surface, for any length of time after the thawing 
of ice and snow, or after heavy showers. 

SECOis'D — Deep Cultivatio:n", by sub-soil plowing or 
trenching, at least twelve to fifteen inches deep, in order 
that plant roots may run deeply for sustenance, and also 
that moisture may rise from below to the surface in sea- 
sons of drouth. 

Third — Alkaline Matter. — The soil needs a lib- 
eral supply of ashes, lime, or other substances of alkaline 
properties, and also salt. A two-fold benefit is caused 
by these ingredients in the soil, namely — they aid largely 
in dissolving the silicia (or flint) and they are, to a con- 
siderable extent, preventives to ravages of insects and of 
diseases; especially the salt, which is effective, very 
often, in preventing injury by rust. Any or all of these 
things are beneficial to the wheat crop, particularly 
where there is prevailing liability to rust and crinkling 
straw. 

Fourth — Clover and Plaster Rotation, the fre- 
quent use of, and plo wing-under of various green crops 
as manures ; the plaster to be applied to the clover, or 
other crop to be plowed-nnder, to induce ranker growth, 
together with the lil^eral application of lime to the land 
by being harrowed into the surface before seeding. 



54 WHEAT CULTURE. 

Fifth — The Seed. — Careful selection of and brining 
the seed in salt, and drying in lime or plaster. 

Sixth — Haerowikg akd Kolling. — The land, just 
before seeding with the drill, should be thoroughly har- 
rowed and rolled, to crush all lumps and completely 
powder the soil, so that the largest possible portion of it 
will be available to nourish the young plants. Another ob- 
ject is to make a soft, mellov\^ seed-bed into which the drill 
can drop the wheat, and have fine earth to fall back into 
the drill furrows to cover the grain perfectly at even 
depth, with no hard, coarse lumps to hinder or smother 
the growth of the young wheat. 

Seventh — Hoeikg or Cultivating the growing wheat 
in fall and spring, often enough to keep down weeds and 
keep the soil mellow and moist, which w411 greatly in^ 
crease healthy growth, letting in air and sunshine more 
freely, and will also facilitate the applying of remedies 
for diseases, as well as the dislodging of insects when 
they infest the crop. 

Eighth — Early HARVESTii^G — Much will be added to 
quantity, quality, and safety of the crop by early harvest- 
ing, while the wheat is in the soft, dough state, which 
tends to prevent injury by rust, loss by shelling and bad 
weather ; enables the work to be better done by not 
crowding so much into a short space of time, and the 
work is more pleasant, as the straw is softer and tougher ; 
furthermore, as has been shown in previous pages, early 
harvest makes heavier grain, while the same weight of 
grain makes more and better flour. 

MORE KI^OWLEDGE NEEDED. 

No matter how much a farmer may know or ave 
learned by reading, or from experiments made by his 
neighbors, he can be further enlightened and benefited 
by making experiments himself on questionable points, or 



RECAPITULATION OF OPERATIONS. 55 

in regard to practices of the utility of which he is not 
assured. He can make the experiments at first on a 
small scale, if he wish, so that the loss, will not be great 
or disastrous, in case of failure. 

More scientific and practical knowledge would enhance 
both the pleasure and profits of agriculture, were the 
large mass of farmers better informed in regard to Botany, 
Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy, and the Physiology of 
Animal and Vegetable Life, it would be greatly to their 
advantage, by enabling them to make their farm opera- 
tions both more effective and productive. For this rea- 
son practical agriculture should be taught as a regular 
study, by competent teachers, in all of our district and 
academic schools. 

Large numbers of the children, especially in the rural 
schools, are to grow up practical farmers, and they 
should be armed and qualified as thoroughly as possible, 
with such education and knowledge as will prove of ad- 
vantage to them in their special avocation, and render 
them as useful and intelligent citizens and farmers as 
they are capable of becoming ; and they should receive 
the rudiments and first principles of such education 
when young and in the primary schools. 

Dr. Blake, the distinguished scientist and educator, 
once said m an address, that '' Lecturers, in all parts of 
the country, should be sent out and maintained by the 
Government, and the farmers should hear them every 
month on topics interesting to them as cultivators and 
stock breeders — lecturers of ability and learning." 



56 WHEAT CULTURE 



CHAPTEE XI. 
EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL WHEAT CULTURE. 

As an encouragement, especially to our younger far- 
mers, and as a stimulant to all, to make efforts for the 
highest possible achievements m wheat growing, we pre- 
sent many examples of large jdelds per acre from various 
sections of our country by different farmers, who have far 
exceeded the common yield of thirteen to fifteen bushels, 
which has been the average throughout the country for 
several years past. While in Massachusetts, Michigan, 
Ehode Island, and Oregon, the average, per acre, m 1878 
and 1879, was about twenty-two bushels ; in Illinois, New 
York, and Ohio, it was nineteen ; California, Kansas, 
Indiana, Texas, and Vermont, seventeen ; Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey, fifteen ; in all of the other States, as 
low as fourteen or under, and in some of the States as 
low as six to eight bushels. 

Now, we believe the lowest of these named may easily 
reach the figure of the highest, and that many of the 
States may attain an average of thirty to forty bushels to 
the acre, simply by fairly adopting tiie thorough system 
and methods pointed out in these pages. 

One farmer, of Hudson, Ohio, stated m the '' Country 
Gentleman," that he got from a field of sandy-clay loam 
land, thirty-two bushels of Clawson wheat, and twenty- 
four bushels of Fultz, per acre ; that he weighed m the 
scales kernels of each, and found that thirty kernels of 
the Clawson balanced forty kernels of the Fultz, and that 
he planted eight pecks of Clawson and seven pecks of 
Fultz to the acre. On that portion of his land which 



EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL WHEAT CULTURE. 57 

was not well under-drained, both yarieties suffered some- 
what by winter killing ; otherwise his whole yield would 
have been one-quarter larger, while no injury occurred 
from that cause on the well-drained land ; the largest 
yield he ever knew from the Fultz was forty bushels the 
acre, while his best three acres of Clawson gave one 
hundred and eighty-one bushels, being sixty and one- 
third bushels per acre.'' 

Mr. Harroon, of Monroe County, N. Y. , obtained from 
eleven and three-quarter acres of clover turned under, 
four hundred and forty-three and one-half bushels of 
handsome Blue-stem wheat, being over thirty-seven 
bushels per acre. 

Ellwanger & Barry, of Eochester, K Y., thrashed 
from eight acres an average of fifty and a half bushels of 
good wheat on land thoroughly drained and well worked, 
which had previously been a nursery and orchard, show- 
ing the advantage of having land well drained and per- 
fectly pulverized for wheat. 

A correspondent of the old '^ Genesee Farmer" reports 
a crop of Genesee Flint wheat giving ninety and three- 
quarter bushels on one acre of land, containing, by an- 
alysis, only two and forty-three one-hundredths per 
cent of organic matter, but contained thirty per cent 
(very large) of soluble silicia, with, potash, soda, and 
other minerals, in larger proportion than is generally 
found m good lands. 

The ''Michigan Homestead" says that Dr. Smith 
stated, in an address before the Saganaw (Mich.) Farm- 
ers' Club, that David Geddes, of that county, obtained 
seventy-three bushels of good wheat from one acre of 
land. James L. Rea, of Lewis and Clark County, Mon- 
tana, Territory, produced one hundred and two bushels of 
good wheat from one acre, and lie obtained the first pre- 
mium, at the Fair, for the largest yield of wheat raised 
m the Territory. 



58 WHEAT CULTURE. 

OTHER ENCOURAGING EXAMPLES. 

It is stated, on what is regarded good autliority, that 
a farmer in Lake Ooimty, Colorado, sowed one acre of 
sandy land, May first, with White Kussian wheat, and in 
September harvested from it one hundred bushels of 
good, sound grain. The land was irrigated with water 
from a mountain stream. 

A farmer in Carroll County, Illinois, reports that for 
several consecutive years he obtained twenty-five bushels, 
the acre, of Odessa Spring wheat, from the same field ; 
he also found that the Odessa answers a good purpose 
as a fall wheat, giving that yield, sowed either in fall 
or spring, in that region. 

Some time since it was reported in the ^' Ohio Farmer " 
that a Mr. Cavin, of Indiana, obtained an average yield 
of forty-nine bushels per acre from eleven acres ; also, 
that Mr. Eichards, of Ohio, obtained nearly the same 
average yield from an entire field of twenty-seven acres, 
and that Andrew Smith, same State, obtained an average 
of fifty-four bushels the acre from fifteen acres, with the 
Clawson variety. Mr. French, of Berkshire, Massachu- 
setts, obtained, by drainage and thorough cultivation, an 
average of fifty-five bushels the acre, with the Clawson 
wheat, one acre of the same field giving sixty-five bush- 
els ; the Clawson is noted as a remarkable tiller, hence 
its large yields. Father Weikamp, of the Convent Farm 
in Emmet County, Michigan, is reported to have thrashed 
one hundred and seventy-four and one-half bushels of 
wheat from three and one-half acres of land, giving a 
fraction over fifty bushels Mie acre. A Bel Air (Md.) pa- 
per states that William Oldfield, of thct county, in 1878, 
raised one tliousand bushels of wheat from twenty-eight 
acres. Part was sown witli Fultz wheat, giving forty-five 
bushels the acre. The balance was sown with Mediterra- 
nean, which gave thirty-five bushels the acre. One 



EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL WHEAT CULTURE. 59 

grower in Arkansas reports getting eighty- two stalks, in 
one stool, from one kernel of Fultz wheat. 

YIELD A]S^D PRODUCT FOR SIXTEEN YEARS. 

From statistics in the Agricultural Eeports, for the fif- 
teen years previous to 1878, it is learned that the total 
average area sown of wheat was twenty million five hundred 
and seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and thirtv-one 
acres ; total average product, two hundred and fifty mil- 
lion two hundred and seventy thousand one hundred and 
twenty-seven. In 1863, thirteen million ninety-eight 
thousand nine hundred and thirty-six acres were sown, 
producing one hundred and seventy-three million six hun- 
dred and seventy-seven thousand nine hundred and twen- 
ty-eight bushels of wheat, and showing an average yield, 
per acre, of a fraction above thirteen bushels, for that 
year. The average yield, per acre, during sixteen years, 
including 1878, was found to be twelve and one-half 
bushels. In 1878, the area harvested was reported at 
thirty-one million acres, and the product at about four 
hundred and twenty million bushels, giving a fraction over 
thirteen bushels j^er acre. The average price, per bushel, 
for sixteen years, was one dollar and twenty cents and 
four mills ; average price from 1871 to 1878, inclusive, 
was one dollar and four cents ; the highest average price, 
any one year, during the sixteen years past, was two dol- 
lars and six cents and four mills. When the writer was 
a boy, on the Genesee Flats, fifty years ago, it was a 
common thing among farmers to obtain as high as forty, 
fifty, and often sixty, bushels the acre. 

RESPONSES TO MY CIRCULARS. 

During the latter part of last year I sent out several 
hundred circulars to reliable and practical parties, in most 
of the States, for the purpose of obtaining reports of the 
best achievements known in wheat growing, by the best 



60 WHEAT CULTURE. 

and most successful farmers, asking answers to the fol- 
lowing questions : 

QUESTIO]S'S CON'TAIi^ED 11^ THE CIECULAR. 

What is the largest yield of wheat, per acre, known to 
you, in your neighborhood, on not less than two acres ? 
On what kind of soil ? What the plowing ? What the 
variety of wheat ? What date, and manner sown ? 
What date harvested ? What the fertilizers used ? and 
other useful information. 

Many resj^onses to my circulars, with the desired in- 
formation, have kindly been returned to me from all 
parts of the country, showing that some growers, almost 
everywhere, have succeeded in getting extra large yields, 
ranging from thirty up to sixty-one bushels to the acre, 
on the whole of large fields, and portions of many of 
those replies are given in pages further on. 

Chief among the valuable lessons which the reader 
may learn from these reports, is — that the larger yields 
advocated by me in this little work, are perfectly and 
easily practicable for all farmers who possess the ambi- 
tion and energy to secure them. 



EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL WHEAT CULTUKE. 



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62 WHEAT CULTUEE. 

CHAPTER XIL 
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 

A2:ricultiiral Commissioner L. L. Polk, of North Caro- 
lina, writes : "We have many other as large yields of 
wheat as the one reported here (thirty-one and one-half 
bushels), but not on such large areas of ground as the 
above ; deep plowing and fine pulverisation does it. " 

Mr. V. C. Stiers, of Ohio, says : "Fultz is their best 
variety of wheat ; Dr. Little gets large yield by hauling 
the dead animals and other stuff from the town, and 
then composting them with the manure and garden 
earth on his farm ; it gives him very profitable returns 
for the cost." 

Mr. D. Lawrence, of Maryland, says : " The land 
was well prepared by harrowing and rolling before seed- 
ing with the drill ; the seed was carefully screened and 
brined, to make it perfectly clean." 

Mr. J. H. Hess, of Ohio, says : " My yield of Ar- 
nold's Gold Medal, in 1878, was forty-five bushels the 
acre ; in 1879, on similar soil, it is forty-six and one-half 
bushels the acre." 

Hon. Richard Johnson, of Livingston County, New 
York, writes : " When this county was new, half a cen- 
tury ago, yields of wheat as high as sixty bushels the 
acre were raised here in some instances, and often forty 
bushels. Now, we think twenty to twenty-five bushels 
the acre a good yield ; our land, generally, is a gravelly 
loam. The reason that we do not get such crops as for- 
merly is that the farmers ^'^ run "their land too much 
with grain, and do not pasture and clover enough ; and 
the forests are cmt away, so there are no trees for wind- 
breaks," 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 63 

Mr. Adam. Bloom, of Michigan, says " he plowed-un- 
der an old mint- stubble, in the spring, about seven 
inches deep ; dragged it twice, and cultivated it four 
times in all, with a good cultivator, wherever the mint 
and grass made their appearance, so that the ground was 
made fine and kept clean as a garden all the season, until 
seeding time ; then cultivated about five inches deep so 
as to bring the rotted mint manure near the surface ; 
then planted the wheat with a drill. This mode gave me 
eighty-eight bushels of good wheat. Early May variety, 
from two acres, on an old mint stubble, well cultivated 
and cleanly subdued." 

Mr. E. L. Russell, of Mich. , says his ground was clover 
sod, plowed-under the year before, and then in August 
wheat stubble was plowed about eight inches deep ; then, 
early in September, just before drilling in the seed, eigh- 
teen loads of barn-yard manure to the acre were spread 
on the plowed ground and thoroughly harrowed into the 
surface soil, and followed with the roller ; then, Septem- 
ber eleventh, planted by drill, putting one and a half 
bushels of seed to the acre. 

Such statements, from practical farmers and successful 
growers, are very valuable. 



64 WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER XIIL 
DISEASES AND INSECTS ATTACKING WHEAT. 

Many of the diseases to which the wheat cro]^ is liable 
are caused by improper culture and conditions of the 
land, as has been shown in the foregoing pages. Some 
experienced growers maintain that even the prevalence of 
insects may be prevented by judicious culture of the soil 
and preparation of the seed. 

RUST Ai;rD SMUT. 

Eust, smut, and other forms of fungus, are usually 
due to a lack of drainage, stagnant water in the sub-soil, 
and a too succulent growth of the plant by the excess of 
nitrogenous matter, and a lack of soluble silica m the 
soil, which cause soft, spongy straw, not sufficiently 
glazed over with silica to render it hard and stiff, to re- 
sist effect of changes in temperature. 

It is maintained that perfect drainage and complete 
pulverization of the soil, so as to freely admit the circula- 
tion and action of the air and moisture all through it, by 
which silica and other mineral matters will be better dis- 
solved, will almost entirely remedy the evil, especially 
with a liberal quantity of potash and salt m the soil. 
Ashes, lime, and salt, with moisture, are powerful sol» 
vents of all matters in the earth necessary to make stout, 
healthy wheat crops. Hence their action does much to 
prevent rust and smut, as also does soakinfr the seed, six 
to ten hours, in salt or bine-stone brine, and then stirring 
the grain in lime or plaster, liberallv, to dry it, for work- 
ing freely throuirh the drill in Dlantm"-. 

A moderate dressins: of lime on the growing wheat, 
late in fall or early spring, when wet with dew or rain, is 



DISEASES Aiq-D II^'SECTS ATTACKIN^G WHEAT. G5 

a good preventive and cure. But early harvest, wliile the 
grain is soft, is a very sure way to avoid the destruction 
by rust. 

THE CHIKCH BUG A:N'D HESSIAK FLY. 

In some sections and seasons the Chinch Bug {Micropif^- 
leucopterus) is very destructive, especially in dry seasons, 
but wet weather is unfavorable to it ; all grains ^ra 
more or less liable to be infested by this insect. Ex- 
perienced farmers have found that spreading eight to ten 
bushels of quick lime, to the acre, on the stubble and 
among the weeds, and plowing it all under in August, 
for seeding in September, is a pretty sure way of getting 
rid of this pest, as well as many other insects which in- 
fest the wheat crop ; but a second shallower plowing, or 
working with the cultivator, and thorough rolling, before 
seeding, should be done, to fit the land nicely for the 
drill, and to more perfectly mix the lime and soil. 

Another troublesome post is the Hessian Fly (Ceci- 
domyia destructor) which often appears in some localities 
and seasons. 

A writer in the ^'Allentown (Penn.) Democrat" 
says : — '^ There are two broods of the Hessian fly brought 
to perfection each year — in the fall and the spring ; the 
transformation of ^ome appear to be often retarded beyond 
the usual time, and the life of individuals is sometimes 
longer than a year, and the continuation of the species 
in after years made sure. The mature insect deposits it? 
eggs on the young plants soon after they appear above the 
ground, and are several weeks doing this ; the eggs are 
about five days in hatching, the young worms going 
directly to a joint of the stalk, where they affix them- 
selves and become stationary, until their transformations 
are completed, but do not go to the center of the stalk, 
nor bore into it, as some suppose, but lie upon its sur- 



66 WHEAT CULTUKE. 

face, protected by the leaves. One maggot seldom des- 
troys a plant, bnt three or four deplete it of its juices, 
and it dies. It takes five or six weeks for the larvae to 
attain full size. At this time the skin hardens, becomes 
brown, and to the naked eye the insect has the appear- 
ance of a small flaxseed. In this condition it remains 
until spring, when the fly comes forth, and goes through 
the same operations as before." 

A dressing of three to five bushels of salt, to the acre, 
in the fall, and another in early spring, it is said, will 
effectually destroy them ; and that lightly covering the 
seed m rich, friable soil, is more unfavorable to their 
growth than the opposite. A Virginia farmer recom^- 
mends the sowing on wheat of four to five bushels of 
lime, to the acre, as a remedy for the Hessian fly. Sow 
while the dew is on the plant, and the lime will be dis- 
solved, forming a lye, which runs down the blade to the 
root, thus destroying the insect. 

Plaster sowed on the growing crop, spring and fall, is 
said to be very useful. 

WHEAT MIDGES. 

Mr. Klippart speaks of two insects known as Midges — 
the red mid2:e {Cecidomyia fritici), a species of the same 
genus as the Hessian fly ; and another, the yellow midge, 
a small fly. They both prey upon the head of the wheat, 
in the chaff, and on the kernel, while the grain is green, 
and cause it to blast before coming to maturity. 

Eich culture, strong growth, with early planting and 
early harvesting, will do much to prevent the evils done 
by these insects. Wheat sown in wide drills and hoed, 
by hand or horse-hoes, gives a favorable opportunity to 
apply lime or sulphur to the heads of the grain, by 
sprinkling, which cannot be done in ordinary culture ; 
and those articles are destructive to the midges, if applied 



DISEASES AlsD IN^SECTS ATTACKI^^G WHEAT. 67 

when the grain is wet with dew, or rain. 

THE GEANAKY OR BAR:N" WEEVIL. 

The Weevil (Calandra granaria) is an insect which in- 
fests grain in the granary. The weevils prey upon ali 
kinds of grain in the bin and the corn-crib, and being 
very small, about one-eighth of an inch in length, they 
are not readily seen, particularly in a dark bin. Their 
mode of mischief is by piercing minute holes in the ker- 
nel, and there depositing their eggs, from which are 
hatched small maggots which eat out the heart and flour 
of the grain. 

An agricultural journal remarks in regard to it : 
'^ Wheat in the granary is subject to injury by the weevil 
and the grain moth. This damage may be prevented, to 
some extent, by shifting the gram and runnmg it through 
the fanning-mill. Corn cribs are almost always infested 
by rats and mice. A vermin-proof crib may be made by 
covering the posts and lower corners with tin or sheet- 
iron, which may be painted for preservation. The loss 
by these causes w^ill average eighteen per cent, and often 
more, of the value of the grain, but it may be in part or 
wholly avoided by care and precaution." Fumigation 
with sulphur or tobacco lias been found useful. 

But, as has been and is maintained by many old prac- 
tical growers, deep, rich, thorough cultivition of the soil, 
with care in selecting and preparing the seed, is largely a 
security from serious injury by any of those diseases and 
insects, by producing plants with vigor and strength to 
resist or overcome ravages by either. Slim growth and 
feeble conditions induce and invite ravages by disease and 
insects, wdiile luxuriant growth and healthy conditions of 
soil are, as a rule, favorable to security. 



68 WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
TO PREVENT WINTER-KILLING. 

The most effective and beneficial mode of preventing 
wheat from being injured by the freezing and heaving 
of the soil is liberal mulching, top-dressing with fine 
manure or compost from the ])arn-yard, or slaked peat 
from the muck pile ; to be evenly spread over the fall- 
sowed wheat field in autiann, when the ground is suf- 
ficiently frozen to bear the wagon wheels. Spread Just 
thick enough to have the ground lightly covered, so that 
when the soil freezes, cracks and heaves, the wheat roots 
will be covered, protected and not torn out, but the 
mulch or compost will fall into the cracks and cover the 
roots, sheltering them from the effects of weather. We 
have several times seen fields which were liable to this 
freezing and heaving, with wheat drilled in, portions of 
which were top-dressed in autumn, as above directed, 
and on which a full crop of good, plump grain was 
secured, while on the portion of the fields not mulched, 
in every instance the crop of wheat was a total failure, 
not showing straw or grain enough to be worth harvest- 
ing. In fact, the grain obtained from the portion of the 
field which was top-dressed much more than paid the 
cost of the operation ; besides the incidental benefits of 
this light mulching, as a surface manure, a protection to 
the soil from scorching sun rays of summer, and shelter- 
ing the young grass when the grain is cut oif. In fact, 
liberal, frequent, careful top-dressing the fall-sown 
grains as well as meadows, is one of the most profitable 
and reasonable methods for preserving fertility of soils 
and protecting winter grains and grasses that farmers 
can practise, and will be found always profitable. 



IMPROVED MACHINERY AKD IMPLEMENTS. 69 

CHAPTER XV. 
IMPEOVED MACHINERY AND IMPLEMENTS. 

New inventions have enabled the producers to draw from 
the soil its powers and productions with such rapidity, 
without equally replenishing its fertility, that the capac- 
ity of the land to produce has been almost as rapidly ex- 
hausted ; whereas, had the farmers as generally applied 
those vast powers also to draining and thoroughly pul- 
verizing the land to an additional depth, the fertility or 
productive power would have been proportionally in- 
creased and preserved. It is not yet too late, if they 
will learn lessons of wisdom and judiciously apply them 
to a more perfect system of tillage. 

Land which is lumpy and cloddy, only partly crushed 
and mellow, can be only i:)artly available to nourishing 
and maturing of the crops, as plants can appropriate 
only what is fit for solution ; for continuous, large crop- 
ping this should be done, and machine-power can well 
be adopted to do it. So w^itli deep culture ; land thor- 
oughly and uniformly cultivated to the depth of twelve 
or fifteen inches is capable of producing, year after year, 
nearly twice as much crop as six inches in depth; and 
machine- power, which has been so effective in harvesting 
and thrashing, can be made equally effective in draining 
and comminuting the land to greater depth. Then the 
rapid cropping will not exhaust the power of production 
of the soil. 



70 ■ WHEAT CULTURE. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

ANALYSES OF WHEAT AND STRAW. 

Knowing the constituents of the wheat plant — both 
gram and straw — will aid ver}^ much in determining 
what parts are derived from the earth and what from the 
atmosphere, respectively, as well as what Is to be done, 
by cultivation, to supply those wants so as to secure the 
best resnltSc 

Burning the grain and straw, reducing them to ashes, 
shows the mineral or inorganic ingredients which are ob- 
tained from the soil ; chemical decomposition and separa- 
tion shows the organic and nutritive ingredients, which 
are mostly obtained from the atmosphere. 

Voelcker proves that a large percentage of wheat is 
stai'cb, gluten, and sugar, while straw contains a large 
per cent of carbon and silica. 

Analysis by Boussingault shows that v/heat contains, in 
one hundred parts : Carbon, 46.10 ; oxygen, 43.40 ; hy- 
drogen, 5.80; nitrogen, 2.30; ash, 3.40=100. These 
are derived from both air and soil, but mostly from the 
air. 

Prof. W^ay gives the following analyses of the ashes of 
grain and straw, separately, in one hundred parts : 
Grain" — Silica, 5.63; phosphoric acid, 43.98; sulphuric 
acid, 0.21; lime, 1.80; magnesia, 11.69; peroxide of 
iron, 0.29; potash, 34.51; soda, 1.87; loss, 0.02. Of 
Straw — Silica, 69.36 ; phosphoric acid, 5.24; sulphuric 
acid, 4.45; lime, 6.96; magnesia, 1.45; peroxide of 
iron, 0.29; potash, 11.79; soda, none; loss, 0.46. 
Much silica in the straw, far more than in the grain, 
and is derived from the soil. 

In "Encyclopaedia of Agriculture" we finc^ the follow- 



ANALYSES OF WHEAT AN^D STRAW. 71 

ing analysis, by Prof. Beck, of the constituents of grain : 
"Water 14.0; gluten and albumen, 14.6; starch, 59.7; 
gum and sugar, 7o2 ; cellular and woody fibre, 1.7 ; fatty 
matter, 1.2 ; mineral matters, 1.6=100. 

Professor Horsford, in his excellent work on the Paris 
and Vienna Expositions, gives the following analyses of 
the ash of average good wheat : potash, 30.00 ; soda, 
3.50; magnesia, 11.00; lime, 3.50; oxide of iron, 
1.00 ; chloride of sodium, 0.50 ; sulphuric acid, 0.50 ; 
phosphoric acid, 46.50 ; silica, 3.50=100. He gives the 
following organic and nutritive ingredients : — Starch, 
57.00; dextrine, 4.50;fibrine, 9.27; nitrogen, 2.23; 
oil, 1.80 ; woody fibre, 6.10 ; ash, 1.70 ; extract matter, 
1.40; water, 16.00. 

Professor Muller found the following in 100 parts of 
heavy wheat grains : 

Water, 15.65; woody fibre, 2.54; ash, 1.57; nitro- 
genous matter, 11.84; oil, 2.61; sugar, 1.41; starch, 
64.38 ; albumen and gluten are included in the above as 
nitrogenous matter, and with the starch constitutes the 
nutritive matter. 

Professor Way showed that an acre of wheat, which 
yielded forty bushels, gave in weight : 

Grain, 2,604 lbs. ; mineral matter, 44'/^ lbs. Straw, 
2,775 lbs. ; mineral matter, 123y, lbs. Chaff, 401 lbs. ; 
mineral matter, 47y2 lbs. 

The grain gave 5.6 per cent of silica, and the straw 
gave 69.36 per cent of silica ; the grain gave 43.98 
per cent of phosphatic matter, and the straw 6.24 per 
cent of same. Of lime, potash, magnesia, and soda, the 
grain gave 49.87 per cent, while the straw gave only 
20.20 per cent of the same ingredients. This large 
amount of silica (dissolved sand) in straw and chaff 
should go back to the soil for the benefit of future crops. 



72 Wheat culture, 

CHAPTER XVII. 
CONCLUSION. 

When all the States east of the Mississippi River bring 
their wheat yield up to that of Michigan and Ohio, the 
center of wheat production will continue to be east of 
that river ; but at present, indications are that the wheat 
center is rapidly tending to a line west of that, if, in- 
deed, it be not already beyond i't, so that unless the 
eastern portions of the country speedily improve their 
present modes of cultivation and increase their yield of 
wheat, they will soon and surely lose their ascendancy in 
wheat measures. 

Better drainage, deeper plowing, and more perfect pul- 
verization of the soil are absolutely necessary, together 
with a more liberal use of Clover, Plaster, and Lime, to 
secure a considerably larger yield of wheat, in the older 
States. Hon. Thomas Pollard, of Virginia, says clay 
land, with clover fallow, will bear one hundred bushels 
of lime to the acre, with advantage ; but on land defi- 
cient in vegetable matter, very much less should be used. 

Highest success in wheat-growing involves and pre- 
sumes skillful and intelligent management in other parts 
of farming, so that he who uniformly secures superior re- 
sults with wheat, and does not impoverish his land or 
soil, cannot well be other than a good farmer, able to 
secure profitable results in all other farm operations. 
Hence, to become an eminent wheat-grower is to become 
a complete farmer. To aid in bringing about that result 
is our aim. and purpose in writing this little work. 



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Farmer*s Cyclopedia 
of Agriculture ^ 

A Compendium of Agricultural Science and Practice 
on Farm, Orchard and Garden Crops, and the 
Feeding and Diseases of Farm Animals 

"Bv EARLEY VERNON WILCOX, Ph. D 
and CLARENCE BEAMAN SMITH, M. Sc 

Aiiociate Editors in the Office of Experiment Stations, United States 
'Department of Agricultur^. 




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contains 

Detailed directions for the culture of every 

important field, orchard, and garden crop 

grown in America, together with descriptions of 
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of modern methods in feeding land handling all 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

Farmers CycHM lM, 

; T002 681 037 1 « 

of Agriculture /^f 

A Compendium of Agricultural Science and Practice 
on Farm, Orchard and Garden Crops, and the 
Feeding and Diseases of Farm Animals 

B^ EARLEY VERNON WILCOX, Ph. D 
and CLARENCE BEAMAN SMITH, M.S. 

Associate Editors in the Office of Experiment Stations^ United States 
^Department of Agriculture. 

nr^JTIHIS is a new, practical and complete pres- 
j J[ entation of the whole subject of agricul- 
ture in its broadest sense. It is designed 
for the use of agriculturists who desire 
up-to-date, reliable information on all 
matters pertaining to crops and stock, but more 
particularly for the actual farmer. The volume 
contains 

Detailed directions for the culture of every 

important field, orchard, and garden crop 

grown in America, together with descriptions of 
their chief insect pests and fungous diseases, and 
remedies for their control. It contains an account 
of modern methods in feeding land handling all 
farm stock, including poultry. The diseases which 
affect different farm animals and poultry are de- 
scribed, and the most recent remedies suggested for 
controlling them. 

Every bit of this vast mass of new and useful 
information is authoritative, practical, and easily 
found, and no effort has been spared to include all 
desirable details. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 
topics covered in these references, and it contains 
700 royal 8vo pages and nearly 500 superb half- 
tone and other original illustrations, making the 
most perfect Cyclopedia of Agriculture ever at- 
tempted. 

Handsomely bound in cloth. $3.50; hatf morocco 
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